Drunk driver kills NYPD officer directing traffic at previous car accident

A police officer who was directing traffic away from a car accident was killed by a driver who was drunk, high on marijuana and who was driving with a suspended license.

The accident took place around 2:00 am on Tuesday morning on the Long Island Expressway  near Francis Lewis Boulevard in Fresh Meadow. 32 year old Jessica Beauvais had just left a studio where she had been recording a podcast and during which she was drinking and vaping.  She was speeding and did not slow down as she passed the traffic cones and flashing lights that the highway police had previously installed to signal the previous accident scene. She crashed into NYPD Officer Anastasios Tsakos and send him flying 100 feet. The impact was so strong that her windshield was smashed and the front of her car destroyed. She did not even stop. She continued to drive dragging an orange cone from the scene under her car. She was arrested by police a few exits later and asked the police: what did I do? She later apologized.

Beauvais who has a teenage son and is his sole provider is facing up to 15 years in prison. She is facing 13 counts including  vehicular manslaughter, DWI, reckless driving, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, driving with a suspended license.  Several other NYPD officers at the scene just had the time to run away from her destructive path but Tsakos died.

Anastasios Tsakos was working at the scene of a fatal crash that also involved a driver with a suspended license

Anastasios Tsakos, a married father of two, had been with the NYPD Highway Patrol for 14 years. He was on the job, at the location of a previous crash during which another driver with a suspended license crashed into a utility pole.  The car caught fire and the passenger died. The driver, identified as 24 year old Jonathan Espinal, survived and was charged with unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and driving with a suspended license.

Location of the accident: courtesy of Google Map