Community Corner

Bronx Man Pleads Guilty to Fatal October Accident

Emmanuel Garcia faces 25 years in state prison for causing a crash that killed an 83-year-old Spotswood woman and her 60-year old daughter.

A 29-year-old Bronx, NY man has pleaded guilty to a Ryders Lane accident that killed a Spotswood mother and daughter.

According to an article on NJ.com, Emmanuel Garcia pleaded guilty on July 11 to two counts of aggravated manslaughter as well as eluding police and leaving the scene of an accident after he struck a vehicle driven by Dolores Krowicki, 83, and her daughter, Karen Larue, 60. 

Garcia was driving with a suspended license on Route 18 when he spotted a police car behind him, and tried to flee.

He led police on a chase, ultimately running a red light and striking Larue’s car as it was making a left turn from Winston Road onto Ryder's Lane.

Following the accident, Garcia ran from the scene, but was apprehended outside an office building on Summerhill Road shortly before 3:42 p.m., according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

A preliminary investigation by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and the East Brunswick Police Department shows that Garcia was stopped at a red traffic light on Route 18 northbound at Racetrack Road shortly before 3 p.m.

When the light turned gree, Garcia made a sudden, illegal U-turn onto the southbound side of Route 18.

Find out what's happening in East Brunswickfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

An East Brunswick police car, which also had stopped for the red light, pursued Garcia, who continued to Rues Lane, driving in excess of the posted 40-mile-per-hour speed limit, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

Police followed, but for safety reasons, considered the defendant’s speed and location, and terminated the pursuit on Rues Lane.

Find out what's happening in East Brunswickfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

The investigation further showed that Garcia continued driving at speeds greater than the posted limit on Ryders Lane and used the shoulder of the road to pass several vehicles before he disregarded a red light at the Winton Road intersection and broadsided Krowicki’s vehicle, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

The victim’s vehicle, a 1995 Ford Taurus, was making a left turn from Winton Road onto Ryders Lane when it was hit. The Taurus spun into oncoming traffic and struck another vehicle, which had stopped for the red light on Ryders Lane. That vehicle rolled into the vehicle behind it, but no one in those two vehicles was injured.

The charges were filed after Krowicki was pronounced dead at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick at 3:40 p.m., and her daughter was pronounced dead at the hospital at 5:38 p.m.




Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.