Mom sentenced in crash that paralyzed child

A Bay Shore woman whose 3-year-old daughter was paralyzed after she drove drunk and crashed was sentenced Friday to 3 to 9 years in prison, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.

Samantha Alfaro, 20, pleaded guilty in January to aggravated vehicular assault and aggravated DWI, both felonies under Leandra's Law, as well as endangering the welfare of a child. Leandra's Law makes it a felony, even on first offense, to drive drunk with a passenger younger than 16 in the car.

Authorities said that on March 8, 2010, after a night of drinking at her cousin's house in East Meadow, Alfaro drove her 1998 Mazda 626 LX north on South Oyster Bay Road in Syosset. She veered across the southbound lanes, hit the curb, then drove along the curb into oncoming traffic before crashing into a tree at 7:30 a.m.

Her daughter was not in a child safety seat, but was secured in the backseat by a lap belt, officials said. In a statement Friday, Rice said the impact broke the child's neck and severed her spine by "approximately five inches," leaving the little girl unable to breathe.

Off-duty fire department personnel, a Good Samaritan, volunteers from the Syosset Fire Department medical team and Nassau County police and Aviation Bureau officers all worked to revive the girl.

Samantha Alfaro suffered leg and ankle injuries.

"Today's sentence cannot change the heartbreaking impact this defendant's reckless choice has had on an innocent child," Rice said in her statement. She noted police found the daughter's safety seat in the trunk of the car and a half-empty bottle of vodka, plastic cups and "multiple empty beer bottles" inside the car.

Alfaro's mother was awarded custody of the girl, now 5.

After Alfaro pleaded guilty in January, her attorney, Dennis Lemke of Mineola, said: "I hope this will be a lesson for anyone who reads about this case. Samantha would have preferred to lose her own life to have spared her daughter."