Report: Rockaway Driver In Crash That Killed Friend, 22, Had Been Drinking, Was On Phone

A Rockaway woman had been drinking at two bars and was using her cellphone when she got into a crash last month that killed her friend, according to a police report.

Samantha Viscardi, left, had been drinking and was using her phone at the time of a car accident that killed her friend Kimberly Boyle, right.
Photo Credit: *Sam Viscardi Facebook/Kimberly Boyle Facebook*

Cecilia Levine

03/21/2019 9:59 a.m.

Samantha Viscardi, 22, crashed her car off Green Pond Road on Feb. 2 after going to two bars, according to a police report obtained by NJ.com.

Responding officers found her "swaying and staggering with bloodshot eyes” and the smell of alcohol on her breath, the police report says, adding that she claimed to have drunk wine and booze at two bars.

“She recalled (using) her cellphone and losing control of her vehicle and (striking) the guard rail,” it says.

In the passenger seat was her unconscious and seriously injured friend, Kimberly Boyle, also 22, of Washington Township.

Boyle died at the hospital Feb. 8 without regaining consciousness, authorities said.

Prosecutors, in turn, upgraded charges against Viscardi from assault by auto to reckless vehicular homicide.

Boyle, who went by "Kimmy," graduated from Washington Township High School in 2014. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from William Paterson University, where she was a member of Phi Sigma Sigma.

Boyle worked as an applied behavior analysis therapist for children with special needs.

"She was a real-life hero working with children with special needs in order to give them the support that they needed to thrive," her obituary says. "She elected on her own to be an organ donor, so she will be a hero in death, saving multiple lives."

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