Massapequa Man Pleads Guilty to Charges in Fatal Head-On Crash: DA

MASSAPEQUA, NY - A Massapequa man who killed his 28-year old passenger when he drove while on drugs the wrong way on Sunrise Highway and crashed head-on into a pickup truck last year, pleaded guilty on Friday to manslaughter charges, according to the Nassau County DA.

Michael Bantel, 28, pleaded guilty before Supreme Court Justice Angelo Delligatti to second degree manslaughter, second degree vehicular manslaughter, driving while ability impaired by the combined influence of drugs or alcohol and drugs and third degree assault, according to the DA.

The DA says that they believe he should be sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison. He is due back in court for sentencing on June 24.

On May 5, 2015, Bantel was driving eastbound on Sunrise Highway in Massapequa in a 2005 Nissan Maxima when he drove across the median into oncoming traffic and crashed head-on with a 2014 Ford pickup truck at the Hicksville Road intersection at about 4:45 a.m. the DA said.

Bantel’s passenger, 28-year-old Anthony Sylvia, died from injuries caused by the accident soon after at Nassau University Medical Center, the DA said.

Both the 37-year-old driver of the Ford and Bantel, who was impaired by "more than one narcotic drug at the time of the crash," were treated for minor injuries, according to the DA.

The driver of the Ford had borrowed the pickup truck because her normal car, a sedan, was being serviced at the time.

“This case demonstrates how random the threat of dangerous driving is and why my office continues to write legislation to close the loopholes in our laws,” District Attorney Madeline Singas. “One young man was violently killed but another woman would have suffered the same fate if the innocent driver of the pick-up truck had taken her sedan that day. It has to stop.”