Drunk Driver Sentenced After Killing Staten Island Mom On BQE: DA

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN — A drunk driver who killed a 49-year-old mother on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, and in front of her two teenaged children, has been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Vladimir Menin, 44, was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide for ramming his BMW into another car and sending 49-year-old Aissatou Diallo plummeting off the BQE the morning of Aug. 29, 2016, prosecutors said.

Diallo, of Staten Island, was helping her sister repair a flat tire on an expressway shoulder near Apollo Street and Meeker Avenue around 2:45 a.m. when a speeding Menin crashed his 2011 BMW into her sister’s car, prosecutors said.

The disabled car rammed into Diallo and — in full view of her 17-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter — she was sent her flying over the guardrail, down 50 fifty feet and onto the pavement, said prosecutors.

Diallo, who had been with her family returning home from a wedding, was pronounced dead 45 minutes, prosecutors said.

Menin, who had been driving drunk and with a suspended licence, jumped out of his car and tried to run away, but was stopped by relatives of Diallo who chased him, said prosecutors.

Police officers who examined the belligerent Menin discovered he had been driving with a blood-alcohol level four times the legal limit, said prosecutors.

Menin, of Fort Lee in New Jersey, was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide in 2016, said prosecutors.

Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn District Attorney's office