A Long Island teen was sentenced to the maximum term of up to four years in prison for his role in a hit-and-run crash that severed a woman’s legs and injured five others, officials said Thursday.
In the early hours of Aug. 4, 2024, 16-year-old Valdemar Meza‑Martinez, of Brentwood, was driving a Nissan Rogue on Patton Ave. in Wyandanch when he crashed into the rear of a Kia Optima stopped on the roadway, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
The Kia had stopped on the roadway while its occupants exchanged information with the occupants of a Toyota Camry in the road in front of it, following a collision between the two vehicles.
Prosecutors said when Meza-Martinez’s vehicle struck the Kia, it crashed into the Toyota, pinning the woman between the two stopped cars.
The crash partially severed her legs. She was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, where she underwent surgery to amputate her legs.
While bystanders rushed to her aid, Meza‑Martinez exited his vehicle and fled on foot, prosecutors said.
“The fact that a driver could strike this victim, taking her legs, flee the scene as if nothing happened, and then only face a maximum 1 1/3 to 4 years, is incomprehensible,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said Thursday, calling the injuries “life-altering.”
Two occupants from the Kia, two from the Toyota and one person in the SUV driven by Meza‑Martinez were also injured in the crash, according to Tierney. Their injuries were described as non-life-threatening.
Leaving such a scene without offering help or checking on the victim’s well-being is “completely callous,” Tierney said.
Meza‑Martinez, who is now 17, was arrested by Suffolk County police later that day, online court records show.
On Sept. 29, he pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an incident resulting in serious physical injury, officials said.