A drunken driver who fatally mowed down four people at a Manhattan July 4 celebration would have kept driving if not for the bodies jammed underneath his car, prosecutors said Monday.
A boozed-up Daniel Christopher Hyden, 44, was kicked out of a local watering hole shortly before he got behind the wheel of his Ford F-150 and crashed through a fence at a Lower East Side park, plowing into a party there, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bodganos said in a chilling opening statement at the suspect’s non-jury trial.
“When he hits 11 people, he’s still revving the engine,” Bodganos said. “The only reason the car stops, horrifically, is because it’s on human beings.
Suspect Daniel Christopher Hyden in court on Monday, October 20, 2025. Steven Hirsch / NY Post
A banged-up pickup truck drove into a park in the Lower East Side on Independence Day in 2024. William Farrington
“Human beings are preventing the tires from touching the ground.”
Hyden plowed into the crowd going 52 mph, killing the four people and injuring another seven in the horror, authorities said.
Daniel Christopher Hyden in court on Monday, October 20, 2025. Steven Hirsch / NY Post
He allegedly had a blood-alcohol content of up to .17 — or more than two times the legal limit, officials said.
The mangled pickup truck driven by suspected drunk driver Daniel Christopher Hyden. Robert Miller
Bodganos indicated that the prosecution plans to use Hyden’s own words against him at trial, citing passages during opening statements from the suspect’s autobiography, “The Sober Addict,” which details his rock-bottom struggles with substance abuse.
“’A real danger to others, my bike and myself when I was on the road intoxicated,’” Hyden wrote in a passage that Bodganos quoted during his opening.
Daniel Christopher Hyden’s mugshot. nypost
The prosecutor added of Hyden, “He was aware of and consciously ignored the risk — that another person’s death would occur from his driving while intoxicated.’’
The pickup truck seen after it drove into a park in the Lower East Side. William Farrington
The drunken wreck killed Emily Ruiz, 30, Hermann Pinkney, 38, Ana Morel, 43, and Lucille Pinkney, 59, all of whom were celebrating the patriotic holiday at Corlears Hook Park.
Aftermath of the crash at a Lower East Side park on Independence Day. Four people were killed. William Farrington
In one particularly heartbreaking detail, Ruiz’s young son brought his toy first-aid kit to the hospital “to help the doctors” treat his mom’s fatal injuries,’’ Bogdanos revealed.
Hyden’s lawyer, Theodore Herlich, questioned his client’s blood-alcohol level — and contended he was hampered by a foot he injured in a fight at the club before the crash, “which could have played a role in why the brakes were not pressed harder.”