February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The trial of the Derry-born ambulance driver charged with the deaths of three Brooklyn children killed in a car crash last year has been put back to late July as prosecutors and defense attorneys moved closer to setting a firm start date.
Anne Lamberson has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and reckless homicide after the private ambulance she was driving sailed through a red light and broadsided the car of Angela Igwe. Three of Igwe’s children were killed in the Sept. 30 collision. Igwe and another daughter were critically injured.
A firm trial date has yet to be scheduled as defense lawyers are examining the prosecution’s accident reconstruction evidence. Lamberson’s next court appearance was pout back to July 29.
The case has been mired in controversy since New York police commissioner Howard Safir held a press conference soon after the crash to announce that Lamberson was not on an emergency run when she went through the red light.
That claim was later proven wrong when Lamberson’s lawyer released 911 tapes on which the dispatcher can be heard telling the ambulance that it is a priority call. Emergency vehicles are allowed to pass through red lights as long as they exercise proper caution and do not endanger life. Prosecutors believe enough evidence exists to prove Lamberson acted recklessly and caused the death of the three children.
Already Lamberson has received support from Northern Ireland, where Nobel prize winner John Hume has expressed his concern over the lengthy prison sentence Lamberson is facing. If convicted she faces a maximum prison term of 15 years, although that sentence is unlikely.
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— Patrick Markey