The NYPD sergeant accused of driving the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway in Westchester County, sparking a head-on collision that killed an Upper East Side doorman, has put in her retirement papers, the Daily News has learned.
Sgt. Tiffany Howell, who survived the blistering Jan. 22 crash, applied for a vested separation retirement with the NYPD pension fund on Tuesday, an internal document shared with The News shows.
Howell, 47, is expected to retire in late February even though she has two more years before she can collect her full pension and has so far not been charged in the off-duty crash.
Howell was traveling south in the northbound lanes of the parkway in Mount Pleasant when she collided head on with Manuel Boitel, 61, about 11:40 p.m. Jan. 22.
Boitel was returning home from his job as a doorman for the St. Tropez luxury condominium building on E. 64th St. near First Ave. Medics rushed him to Westchester Medical Center, where he died.
Howell had just left a “Holy Smoke 2026” cigar social at Mom’s Cigar Warehouse in Scarsdale, N.Y., which featured an open bar, buffet-style dinner and premium cigars, when she drove up an exit ramp onto the Taconic Expressway and began driving the wrong direction on the highway, authorities say.
As a member of the NYPD’s Holy Name Society, she helped organize the cigar social. The party was about 10 miles from the site of the fatal crash.
No charges have been filed against Howell as authorities are still waiting for toxicology reports and other findings, WABC Eyewitness News reported Wednesday.
The New York State Police and the state Attorney General’s office are investigating the crash. An email to the state Attorney General’s office looking for an update on the investigation was not immediately returned Thursday. A call to Howell’s attorney, Andrew Quinn, was also not immediately returned.
Howell is an 18-year veteran of the NYPD. She was assigned to the Juvenile Strategies Unit, which is part of the NYPD’s Office of Crime Control Strategies last July. She lives in Warwick, N.Y., nearly 50 miles from where the impact took place.
The NYPD stripped her of her gun and shield after the crash and placed her on modified assignment, officials said.
Anyone with information on the crash is asked to contact the New York State Police Hawthorne Bureau of Criminal Investigation at (914) 742-6057.
