Drunk Driver Gets 2 to 6 Years for Fatal Accident

Shawn Gallivan, the Point Lookout man who pleaded guilty last August to first-degree vehicular manslaughter, aggravated driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a fatal accident in Long Beach, was sentenced 2 to 6 years in prison Friday.

Nassau County Court Judge John Kase sentenced Gallivan for the Oct. 17, 2009 drunken hit-and-run that resulted in the death of David King, 53, a Long Beach resident who worked as a New York City school teacher for 31 years.

“Today’s sentence will not change what happened to Mr. King, or alleviate the pain this tragedy has caused his family and friends,” Rice said in a statement. “It is my hope, however, that this case serves as a constant reminder to all of us about the danger and violence that drunk driving causes.”

According to Rice, Gallivan spent the night drinking at a friend’s house and the Tiki Bar in the West End of Long Beach. At around 3:10 a.m., he was driving a Ford Focus eastbound on the 200 block of East Broadway when he struck King, who was walking north at the intersection of Long Beach Boulevard, she said. Rice estimates that King was lying in the street for about seven minutes before a Long Beach Fire Department EMT found him unconscious, bleeding and suffering from a severe head injury.

A LBFD ambulance transported King to Long Beach Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 3:30 a.m.

A woman, who was a passenger in Gallivan’s vehicle at the time of the crash, contacted police at 5:37 a.m., the DA said. The Long Beach Police Department’s Detective Division, working with the Nassau County Police Department’s Homicide Squad, found Gallivan’s 2005 Ford Focus, with the windshiled shattered, at the friend's house at the 300 block of East State Street at about 11:15 a.m.

Gallivan, a graduate of Long Beach High School who worked as a drum instructor at a music school, was found in the vicinity and was arrested at 11:25 a.m., the DA said.

He was initially charged with leaving the scene of an accident without reporting it. But after an investigation by the DA’s office, he was indicted by a grand jury on April 9, 2010 of additional charges of second-degree manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter in the first and second degrees and aggravated DWI. Gallivan’s blood-alcohol content at the time of the crash is estimated to be .22 percent, almost three times the legal limit, Rice said.