TEEN NOT WEARING SEAT BELT DIES WHEN HE'S EJECTED FROM HIS OWN CAR
From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Brooklyn Injury Lawyer)
On Tuesday January 4, 2011 a Long Island teen was speeding in a BMW his parents bought him for Christmas when he crashed the car, killing himself and critically injuring his two passengers.
The sequence of events leading to the fatal crash in Westbury, New York, began when Francesco "Frankie" Posillico, age 17, ran a stop sign, bounced off a Chevrolet Cobalt and struck and broke a utility pole.
Amazingly, the driver of the other car, a 24-year-old woman from Levittown, suffered minor injuries and was treated and released from the hospital, Nassau University Medical Center.
Posillicpo was driving so fast that his car stopped only after hitting a tree 150 feet from the initial crash site.
Posillico, whose father owns a landscaping business, was not wearing a seatbelt and was tossed from the BMW. He was later pronounced dead at Nassau University Medical Center.
Rear-seat passenger Joseph Scaperrotta, 16, was in critical condition at Nassau University Medical Center with a fractured spine and leg.
Front-seat passenger Daniel Roche, 16, was in a medically-induced coma, also with spinal and other injuries, and listed in critical condition at Winthrop University Hospital.
The devastating crash in Westbury came just days after who was in two accidents a month after getting his license in August, picked out the 2006 blue BMW 330ci with his father, Giuseppe.
"It appears this was a matter of high speed and inexperience. It was a horrific scene," Nassau County Detective Lt. Ray Cote said, adding there was no evidence of alcohol or drugs.
Posillico had been a member of the Westbury Fire Department's Explorers program for teens since he was 14, and planned on becoming a volunteer firefighter as soon as he turned 18, said First Assistant Fire Chief Douglas Ingram.
All three teenagers had connections to the firehouse: Scaperrotta was also an Explorer. His father, a Westbury firefighter, responded to the crash scene without knowing his son was in the wreckage.
And Roche is a cousin of the department's fire chief, Pat Cody.
Ingram described responding to the accident scene Tuesday evening and urging emergency officials to quickly confirm that the car was, in fact, registered to Posillico.
"Then one of the mothers came up and said, 'I think Joey was in the car,' " he said, shaking his head. "It was a long night."
"I can tell you that it was a horrific scene," said Det. Lt. Raymond Cote.
Police also said that Posillico, who earned a driver's license last summer, had been the driver in two other crashes in September, events that investigators blamed on weather conditions and inexperience. He was not cited in those accidents.
