The Daily Hampshire Gazette:Â Driver in fatal Amherst bike accident gets probation
By NICK GRABBE
Staff Writer
Friday, October 30, 2009
BELCHERTOWN – The driver of the vehicle that struck and killed a bicyclist in Amherst on Memorial Day will not go to jail but will never drive again.
In a settlement worked out between the District Attorney’s office and her attorney, Parvin Niroomand, 75, will be on probation for three years. She pleaded guilty in Eastern Hampshire District Court Thursday to a reduced charge of leaving the scene of personal injury and negligent motor vehicle homicide.
Niroomand was not aware that she had struck bicyclist Misty Bassi on University Drive on May 25, and thought she had hit a tree, said John Pucci, her attorney. Bassi’s adoptive father, Dominick Bassi of Groton, Ct., read a statement saying that her family had forgiven Niroomand and believed that “to subject her to the correctional system seems very wrong.”
