Teen's Death In Queens Spurs Demand For Controls On Aging Drivers

WHITESTONE, QUEENS – When Julian Ho heard a 17-year-old girl was hit and killed by an 88-year-old driver in his Queens neighborhood, he couldn't shake the thought that it could have been his 2-year-old son.

The Whitestone father is now calling on the state to impose stricter driver's license requirements and more frequent renewals for elderly drivers. His petition has caught the attention of thousands, including the family of the teen killed.

Ho never met Maddie Sershen, but said his wife, Rachel, was taking their son to the park when she saw a police officer trying to revive the teen on June 25. The St. Francis Prep junior was crossing Utopia Parkway when an elderly driver ran a red light and hit her.

She died shortly afterwards at a nearby hospital.

The driver, Sheila Kahn-Prager, was arrested and charged with running a red light, failing to yield to a pedestrian and failing to exercise due care, police said.

"I was heartbroken when I heard about the accident from my wife," Ho told Patch. "We pass by that intersection all the time. It was Maddie that got hit that morning, but that could have been anyone."

Ho said the crash prompted him to research New York's standards of license renewals for aging drivers. He found out that, for the most part, there aren't any.

New York State only requires a person's driver's license be renewed every eight years, with no retesting other than passing a vision exam. Ho wants the state to shorten that renewal cycle and add a component, such as a memory or reaction test, for drivers over 80 years old to prove they can "continue to remain safely on the road."

"I would like Gov. Cuomo and other decision makers in Albany to reconsider the standards for driver's license renewals as drivers age," he said.

On Saturday, Ho launched his first ever petition on Change.org titled, "Urge New York State DMV to introduce retesting every 2 years once a driver turns 80."

Sershen's family took notice, and the petition took off.

Rita Barravecchio, Sershen's aunt, messaged Ho on Facebook after her family saw the petition when it had about 60 signatures. The next day, after she and other family members shared the petition, it reached 5,000.

"We are just so grateful that he started this," Barravecchio told Patch. "It was something we had been discussing all week, because there has to be some change. Maddie's death cannot be in vain."

Barravecchio, a middle school science teacher, described her niece as "beautiful, brilliant, authentic and fierce." She said she learned of Maddie's death at work, and immediately left to grieve with her tight-knit family.

"Maddie has an army of aunts and cousins and uncles who are all of course just completely devastated," she said. "It makes this that much more difficult."

But it also makes their demand for change that much louder.

The petition now boasts nearly 7,000 signatures, which Ho believes is enough to start a conversation among state officials. He hopes to catch the attention of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state's DMV Deputy Commissioner Terri Egan.

"It would be great (for) someone to draft up a bill and have (a) local legislator sponsor it," Ho said.

Barravecchio said, at a minimum, she wants to see the state's current driver's renewal process shortened for the elderly.

"To say they just have to take a vision test is not enough," she said. "There has to be more."

Whether that means a road, memory or reaction tests - and what age those requirements would start - can be worked out later, she said.

"It's about generating the attention for a need for change," Barravecchio said.

Between the Change.org petition and a GoFundMe that's raised more than $37,000 for Sershen's memorial, the community's paid no shortage of attention to the 17-year-old's death.

Barravecchio said the outpouring of support has helped her family cope.

"There's not enough words to express the gratitude that we have," she said. "It's been hard, and we're still picking up the pieces, but we're motivated."

(Lead images: Left, 17-year-old Madeline Sershen, courtesy of Rita Barravecchi0. Right, Sershen's memorial at the Utopia Parkway intersection where she was killed, by Julian Ho)