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Philly woman pleads guilty in Lower Manhattan sidewalk-driving case – Metro US

Philly woman pleads guilty in Lower Manhattan sidewalk-driving case

Philly woman pleads guilty in Lower Manhattan sidewalk-driving case
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A woman who injured a pedestrian with her car in Lower Manhattan when she drove on the sidewalk to avoid traffic has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the incident.

In April 2015, Tiffany Murdaugh, 35, drove her 2013 Dodge Challenger onto a crowded Beekman Street sidewalk near the Spruce Street School, District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. stated.

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Murdaugh drove for nearly half a block on the sidewalk, striking a 37-year-old woman, the district attorney added. The victim suffered serious injuries including a broken knee and a laceration to her head.

“It is a miracle that no one else was hurt by her recklessness. This driver not only narrowly missed a mother and her two young children, she seriously wounded a woman who had to endure months of physical therapy to rehabilitate her leg,” Vance stated.

After this first incident, Murdaugh drove to Brooklyn, where she allegedly rammed another vehicle in Crown Heights while she was trying to parallel park, the New York Post reported. Murdaugh left her car at the scene in Brooklyn, and authorities later found her at her home in Philadelphia.

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“I blacked out and don’t recall anything until the fender bender in Brooklyn,” she was quoted by the Post. “I did smoke some marijuana – it must have been laced with something.”

Murdaugh, who is expected to be sentenced on Aug. 3, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and first-degree reckless endangerment, according to the district attorney’s office.

“I hope this conviction serves to deter reckless and illegal driving that endangers our city’s residents,” Vance said.