88-Year-Old Driver Pleads Guilty To Hitting, Killing Queens Teen

WHITESTONE, QUEENS -- Friends and family of a teen who was fatally struck at a Whitestone intersection looked on with tears in their eyes as an 88-year-old driver admitted she mowed down their loved one.

Sheila Kahn-Prager, of Beechurst, pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment on Thursday in the death of Maddie Sershen. The 17-year-old St. Francis Prep student was crossing Utopia Parkway near 16th Avenue on June 25 when Kahn-Prager ran a red light and hit her.

"Although she took full accountability for her actions, it does not bring our family any peace," Sershen's aunt, Rita Barravecchio, told Patch through tears.

The grieving aunt argued Kahn-Prager, who admitted glaucoma had caused her vision to deteriorate, shouldn't have been allowed on the road in the first place. She blamed the woman's family for not taking away her keys after she got into another crash in 2013.

"Her actions were not a split-second mistake," Barravecchio said. "It was a series of choices...Maddie's blood will forever stain the hands of Sheila and her son, who allowed his mother to drive knowing full well she was incapable."

Sershen's sister, Olivia, had harsher words for Kahn-Prager. Her voice broke as she stood up to address the defendant in court.

"You are nothing to this world but a murderer and a thief," Olivia Sershen said. "You killed my 17-year-old baby sister because of your negligence."

Sershen's aunt and sister were among about a dozen supporters in the courtroom wearing yellow T-shirts, which have become a symbol of solidarity for the teen and the cause she now represents. Since her death, the family has been vocal in advocating for stricter senior driver's license requirements.

"Yellow was Maddie's color, and yellow represents hope," Barravecchio said in a July rally for her niece that drew a crowd of hundreds. "We have all the hope that change will happen."

The family's advocacy efforts were met with an outpouring of community support from local officials, friends and even complete strangers. A GoFundMe titled "Madeline's Memorial Fund" has raised nearly $38,000, and a Change.org petition calling on the state's Department of Motor Vehicles to mandate periodic license testing on aging motorists has amassed more than 23,400 signatures.

That petition will soon get yet another signature from an unlikely supporter. Kahn-Prager pledged to sign the petition and do her part in advocating for stricter elderly driving tests.

"This is a tremendous tragedy all around," her lawyer said. "She has been distraught from the moment this has happened. I don’t think that she will have a relaxed day or night for the rest of her life."

Her lawyer said Kahn-Prager had lived an "honorable, law abiding life" and "begs of family and friends that at some point they will find it in their heart to forgive her or at least understand that this was not a vindictive act."

Too emotional to speak, Kahn-Prager stood quietly beside her lawyer and broke down in tears after her hearing, where presiding Judge Jeffrey Gershunny sentenced her to a year of probation and ordered she surrender her license.

"These tragic incidents hopefully will result in some kind of legislative change," he said.

Lead photo by Danielle Woodward/Patch