Cops: Man Had 9-Year-Old Son in Car During DWI Hit and Run

(CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y.) -- A hit-and-run accident Sunday night left one person dead and another hospitalized. Police allege the man responsible for the accident was not only driving under the influence of alcohol, but that he also had his nine-year-old child in the car with him.

Police said Victor Ventezulo, 32, of Islip Terrace was driving on Lowell Avenue around 10:30 p.m. Sunday night and hit 40-year-old Laurance Grube of Mastic and 44-year-old Warren Connolly of Central Islip. Both were taken to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, where Grube was pronounced dead.

Under a law passed in December of 2009 known as Leandra's Law, anyone found guilty of a DWI in New York State with a child under 16 years old as a passenger is automatically charged with a felony and required to install a costly ignition interlock device in their vehicle.

Ventezulo was charged with driving while intoxicated with a passenger less than 16 years old, leaving the scene of an accident and endangering the welfare of a child.

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