Malverne woman pleads guilty to assault

A Malverne woman who seriously injured two construction workers while driving under the influence of crack cocaine in Queens in August 2009 pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault in Queens County Supreme Court. Her passenger, a 40-year-old Bellmore man, pleaded guilty to seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Yolanda Silvera, 29, of Franklin Avenue in Malverne, was driving a without a license on Aug. 13, 2009, at about 60 miles an hour while arguing with her passenger, David Kruger, of Fowler Street in Bellmore, when she failed to slow down for a traffic light and veered into a construction barrier at the intersection of Rockaway Boulevard and 150th Street in Queens.

Silvera’s 2002 Nissan crashed into a construction zone and hit construction workers Michael Hudson, 36, and Robert Keller, 35, sending them flying over the hood of the car.

Police said when they arrived at the scene they observed that the front end of the Nissan was smashed, its windows were blown out and it contained bloodstains of the trunk and rear passenger door.

They arrested Silvera and she told police she had smoked crack cocaine before the accident.

Hudson and Keller were transported to a local Queens hospital. Hudson sustained facial trauma and injuries to his lower extremities that required the amputation of his lower left leg. Keller also sustained injuries to his lower extremities and has undergone multiple surgeries since the accident.

Silvera will be sentenced on March 11. She faces nine years in prison and five years post-release supervision.