Drunk driver off to prison after pinning mom and her baby under car, NY officials say
A 44-year-old man is going to prison after striking a woman and her baby with his car and pinning them underneath it, prosecutors in New York said.
David Poncurak was sentenced on March 29 to prison for “an indeterminate term” of 2 1/2 years to 7 1/2 years,, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Poncurak is accused of hitting a woman who was carrying her baby with his car in Yonkers around 8:25 a.m. on July 23, 2021, officials said.
When he hit the woman and the baby, they were “thrown” onto his hood as he crashed into a barbershop, officials said.
The woman and baby were then pinned under his car, officials said.
Officials said witnesses helped lift the car off the mother and baby.
Both were taken to the hospital. The woman had surgery for a fractured femur and her child had a fractured skull and severe burns, officials said.
Poncurak had a blood alcohol content of .13 (the legal limit is .08) and had illegal narcotics in his system, officials said.
“David Poncurak recklessly got behind the wheel of his car after drinking heavily and using illegal narcotics and placed a mother and her daughter in extreme peril,” Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah said. “I am thankful for the heroic actions of the Yonkers Police Department, the bystanders, and the ambulance crew. Because of them, the victims are alive and healing today.”
Poncurak pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated vehicular assault, driving while intoxicated, driving while ability impaired by the combined influence of drugs or of alcohol and third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Drunk driver off to prison after pinning mom and her baby under car, NY officials say."
