Man Sentenced to 3-9 Years in State Prison for Killing Passenger
While Driving Impaired by Alcohol and Speeding

Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler announced that on Thursday, December 7, 2017, Andras Geiger, 24, of Hungary, was sentenced by Orange County Court Judge Craig Stephen Brown to three to nine years in state prison, in connection with the death of a man who had been a passenger in a car that Geiger was driving in the Town of Cornwall, on March 4, 2017. On October 11, 2017, Geiger plead guilty before to Manslaughter in the Second Degree, At the time Geiger pleaded guilty he admitted that he had been driving the car at an excessive rate of speed on Pleasant Hill Road in the Town of Cornwall in the early morning hours when he failed to successfully negotiate a right hand curve. As a result, the car left the roadway and struck a guardrail causing the passenger to be ejected and killed. Geiger sustained serious injuries in the collision and was hospitalized for two months at Westchester Medical Center before being arraigned in County Court.

The fatal collision was investigated by the Town of Cornwall Police Department with assistance from the New York State Police Collision Reconstruction Unit and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. An analysis of Geiger’s blood revealed the presence of active metabolites of marijuana and that he had a blood alcohol level of 0.07 of one percent. The NYSP Collision Reconstruction Unit determined that the car was travelling in excess of 90 mph just prior to the crash.

District Attorney Hoovler thanked the Town of Cornwall Police Department for their investigation of the case and Geiger’s arrest and thanked the New York State Police for their aid in the investigation.

“This defendant deserved a state prison sentence,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “Deaths caused by impaired drivers are as tragic as they are preventable. There is never an excuse for driving while intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. Those who drive while intoxicated place the public, and themselves, at risk of death and other serious harm and must be dealt with severely. I urge all who are tempted to drive in that condition to consider the consequences; not only of prison, but of knowing that you were solely responsible for the death of an innocent person, or a loved one.”

This case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Maryellen Albanese.