February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The crash occurred at the intersection of 35th Avenue and 31st Street in Astoria, under the elevated N and W train tracks.
Gormley, who is 37, then left the scene and was taken into custody by police shortly afterward.
Police found Gormley at his home on Crescent Avenue. They had tracked his whereabouts using the license plate on the bumper of his car, which fell off at the scene of the accident.
Gormley was later arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated and slapped with a felony charge for leaving the scene of an accident. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted.
Gormley was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Tuesday. He made the $25,000 bail but was ordered to surrender his passport. He is to return to court on April 26.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said that Gormley was given a breath test and found to have a blood-alcohol level of .20, more than double the .08 legal limit.
“There was alcohol involved,” an officer who answered the phone at the 114th Precinct said Tuesday.
The DA said that the complaint charged that Gormley stated to police that he got into an accident with another vehicle, that he had four beers, and he fled the scene.
Gormley was heading west on 35th Avenue, when he struck the other vehicle, which was heading south on 31st Street.
Among the injured was a 10-year-old girl, Ilda Ujkaj, who suffered head injuries and is currently recovering at Long Island Jewish Hospital.
Her parents, Fatbardha and Ymer, both Albanian immigrants, suffered minor injuries, and Ilda’s 19-year-old cousin, Selma Purovic, is in stable condition at Elmhurst Hospital.
Calls to Gormley’s home were not answered on Tuesday afternoon.