the crash<\/a>, which occurred Thursday morning at the busy intersection of Sunrise Highway and Merrick Avenue\u00a0in Merrick.<\/p>\nWHAT NEWSDAY FOUNDJoshua Alvarado of Queens pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday to second-degree assault and other charges in connection with a Merrick crash that left a 70-year-old crossing guard critically injured.Prosecutors said Alvarado, 30, was under the influence of drugs when he hit the guard with his pickup truck.Alvarado\u2019s attorney said his client has PTSD and had taken medication the night before to help him sleep.<\/p>\n
Miro had\u00a0just helped students cross the road when Alvarado\u2019s Toyota pickup jumped the sidewalk and struck him. Miro suffered broken ribs, a punctured lung, skull fractures and brain bleeding as a result of the crash, Nassau Assistant District Attorney Nicole Vota told District Court Judge Ryan Cronin.<\/p>\n
Vota said Alvarado had fallen asleep in the left turn lane from\u00a0Sunrise Highway onto Merrick Avenue and was awakened by motorists honking their horns behind him.<\/p>\n
Alvarado acknowledged that he had taken Xanax and other drugs, Vota said, and told police that he should not have driven\u00a0after taking the medications. When Cronin asked Vota how prosecutors knew Alvarado had been sleeping, Vota said that information came from witness statements.<\/p>\n
Vomvolakis said his client told him that he lost control of the truck after it hit a patch of ice. He told reporters following the arraignment that Alvarado had taken Xanax and other drugs the night before to help him sleep.<\/p>\n
Alvarado, he said, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from an assault he suffered 10 years ago that left him with a collapsed lung and plates in his skull. Alvarado also lost a finger during that attack, the attorney said.<\/p>\n
“He has nightly nightmares,\u201d Vomvolakis said.<\/p>\n
The drugs Alvarado took the night before the crash were legally prescribed, his attorney said.<\/p>\n
Members of Miro’s family attended Friday’s arraignment. One relative, who\u00a0declined to identify himself, said he wanted Alvarado to be punished.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is just not right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The judge ordered Alvarado held in lieu of $500,000 cash bail, $1.25 million secured bond, or $2.5 million partially secured bond. He is scheduled to return to court March 4.<\/p>\n
Alvarado faces 2\u00bd to seven years in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n
Alvarado works for a pest extermination firm and lives with his wife and parents. Some of Alvarado\u2019s family members also attended his arraignment but declined to talk to reporters afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an unfortunate situation for everyone,\u201d Vomvolakis said. \u201cWe hope that this man pulls through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miro is one of about 400 crossing guards deployed across Nassau County.<\/p>\n
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman described Miro as \u201cbeloved\u201d during a news conference in Mineola. The retired tugboat operator began his second career as a crossing guard in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur hearts are with one of our own as he fights for his life,\u201d said Kris Kalender, president of CSEA Local 830, the union that represents crossing guards and other Nassau employees. \u201cHe put on his uniform and stepped into traffic to protect this community, as he has done countless mornings before.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe depend on crossing guards to keep our children safe\u2026it is both heartbreaking and unacceptable that a man serving the public in this way is now in critical condition simply for doing his job,\u201d Kalender added. \u201cWe are praying for his recovery and standing with his loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael O’Keeffe covers Suffolk County police and other Long Island law enforcement agencies. He is an award-winning journalist and the co-author of two books,”The Card” and\u00a0“American Icon.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens man charged with striking\u00a0a Nassau crossing guard with his pickup while under the influence of drugs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[303,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-147723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-crime","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}