QUEENS, New York (WABC) — The NYPD gave Eyewitness News an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the technology being used by an elite squad, tasked with investigating hit and runs and other deadly crashes.<\/p>\n
Officers within the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad have the best point of view to piece together how disasters unfold on the roads.<\/p>\n
“That chance encounter leaves somebody deceased and that one vehicle that fled that scene – we have to kind of put them back there,” said Lieutenant Jag Singh of the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad.<\/p>\n
It’s the tedious work of the squad; gathering video, using sophisticated tools to recreate a collision and determining how fast a vehicle was going by the size of a skid mark.<\/p>\n
“That vehicle can go from one location to another county, to another state,” Singh said.<\/p>\n
Perhaps most challenging is trying to track down a hit-and-run driver.<\/p>\n
“They hit the gas, they leave and they say, ‘hey I don’t want to take responsibility, I want to run away from this,'” Singh said.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the hit-and run-driver who mowed down a Queens mother on Mother’s Day in 2022, was sentenced to 28.5 years to life in prison. It’s a case that would not have been closed without Lieutenant Singh’s squad.<\/p>\n
“We respond to these scenes and typically it’s chaotic,” Singh said.<\/p>\n
When the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad arrives at the scene of a deadly or near-deadly crash, the investigation begins with a couple of tools that make people squeamish. One is a form of drug testing. The other is the breathalyzer.<\/p>\n
Singh says these forms of testing is one factor in determining what kind of substance is in a person’s body.<\/p>\n
“Our officers are trained to detect what you’re on,” he said. “They are drug recognition experts. We have these tools to help us confidently say what you were on.”<\/p>\n
The evidence collected against Daniel Hyden helped win a conviction just last month. Investigators found his blood alcohol level to be .17 when he drove his pickup truck into a crowd on July 4, 2024.<\/p>\n
Whether a driver stays or leaves the scene, if there’s criminality, these officers are determined to find it.<\/p>\n
“I do have a passion for that. I have a passion for that victim in getting them justice, and I have passion in getting the family some kind of justice,” Singh said.<\/p>\n
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