TWO OFF-DUTY COPS KILLED, FOUR WOMEN INJURED, IN ALCOHOL-RELATED BRONX ONE-CAR ACCIDENT

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Bronx Injury Lawyer)

Sunday, May 16, 2010. Two off-duty cops were at a party, drinking. They gave four young women a ride home and were traveling north on the Bronx River Parkway in a 2009 Nissan Altima at around 6:30 AM when they struck a guardrail near the 233rd Street exit in the Bronx and flipped over.

The two officers, Edwin Paulino, age 25, and Kim Hoyoung, age 32, were pinned inside the wrecked car. They were pronounced dead at the scene. The four women - Iris Ramirez, 27; Jasmine Ramirez, 20; Melina Ramirez, 26, and Shirley Torres, 26 - were thrown from the vehicle. They were listed in serious but stable condition at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

It was not immediately known whether the four women and the police officers, who were assigned to Harlem's 32nd Precinct, were wearing their seat belts. The police did not specify the cause of the accident, saying only that the cause appeared to be driver inattentiveness - which would tend to exclude external factors like mechanical failure or another vehicle. Blood tests will be performed to determine whether there was alcohol or drug involvement.