Nassau Man Gets 3-9 Years For DWI Crash That Injured Young Girl

SYOSSET, NY — A Syosset man was sentenced today to three to nine years in prison for a 2021 drunk driving crash that injured a man and his 3-year-old niece.

Varun Datt, 37, pleaded guilty in April to aggravated vehicular assault, second-degree assault and aggravated driving while intoxicated.

“After jumping the sidewalk and colliding with a man and his 3-year-old niece, who was found with minor injuries underneath the defendant’s vehicle, Datt simply sat behind the wheel, heavily intoxicated and surrounded by empty bottles of alcohol,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “The defendant was more than three times the legal limit when he was arrested. Thankfully, no one was killed as a result of the defendant’s reckless and perilous decision to drink and drive. Today’s sentence serves as a warning: if you drink and drive, you will be prosecuted, and could spend significant time in prison.”

According to Donnelly, around 4:30 p.m. on May 31, 2021, Datt drove on the wrong side of a residential street in Syosset, where a man was standing with his 3-year-old niece. Datt, who was driving drunk, jumped the curb with his car and hit both of them. The car stopped after it hit a parked car head-on.

When police arrived, they found Datt still in the driver's seat of the vehicle, with empty bottles of rum and vodka in the car. There was also a full bottle of whiskey and two other empty bottles in his sweatshirt.

The man who was hit was taken to Nassau University Medical Center. He suffered many injuries, including a tear in his knee that required him to a use a wheelchair for six weeks.

The girl was taken to Cohen Children's Medical Center, where she was treated for some scrapes and trauma. The man shielded the girl and took most of the impact from the car.