{"id":9655,"date":"2025-10-20T17:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/9655\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T17:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:43:07","slug":"manhattan-drunk-who-killed-four-people-in-july-4-park-crash-was-only-stopped-by-bodies-under-his-wheels-prosecutors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/9655\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan drunk who killed four people in July 4 park crash was only stopped by bodies under his wheels: prosecutors"},"content":{"rendered":"

A drunken driver who fatally mowed down four people at\u00a0a Manhattan July 4 celebration<\/a> would have kept driving if not for the bodies jammed underneath his car, prosecutors said Monday.<\/p>\n

A boozed-up Daniel Christopher Hyden<\/a>, 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,\u00a0plowing into a party there, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bodganos said in a chilling opening statement at\u00a0 the suspect\u2019s non-jury trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he hits 11 people, he\u2019s still revving the engine,\u201d Bodganos said. \u201cThe only reason the car stops, horrifically, is because it\u2019s on human beings.<\/p>\n

Suspect Daniel Christopher Hyden in court on Monday, October 20, 2025. Steven Hirsch \/ NY Post<\/p>\n

A banged-up pickup truck drove into a park in the Lower East Side on Independence Day in 2024. William Farrington<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman beings are preventing the tires from touching the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hyden\u00a0plowed into the crowd<\/a> going 52 mph, killing the four people and injuring another seven in the horror, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Daniel Christopher Hyden in court on Monday, October 20, 2025. Steven Hirsch \/ NY Post<\/p>\n

He allegedly had a blood-alcohol content of up to .17 \u2014 or more than two times the legal limit, officials said.<\/p>\n

The mangled pickup truck driven by suspected drunk driver Daniel Christopher Hyden. Robert Miller<\/p>\n

Bodganos indicated that the prosecution plans to use\u00a0Hyden\u2019s own words against him at trial, citing passages during opening statements from the suspect\u2019s autobiography, \u201cThe Sober Addict,\u201d which details his rock-bottom struggles with substance abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019A real danger to others, my bike and myself when I was on the road intoxicated,\u2019\u201d Hyden wrote in a passage that Bodganos quoted during his opening.<\/p>\n

Daniel Christopher Hyden\u2019s mugshot. nypost<\/p>\n

The prosecutor added of Hyden<\/a>, \u201cHe was aware of and consciously ignored the risk \u2014 that another person\u2019s death would occur from his driving while intoxicated.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The pickup truck seen after it drove into a park in the Lower East Side. William Farrington<\/p>\n

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.<\/a><\/p>\n

Aftermath of the crash at a Lower East Side park on Independence Day. Four people were killed. William Farrington<\/p>\n

In one particularly heartbreaking detail, Ruiz\u2019s young son brought his toy first-aid kit to the hospital \u201cto help the doctors\u201d treat his mom\u2019s fatal injuries,\u2019\u2019 Bogdanos revealed.<\/p>\n

Hyden\u2019s lawyer, Theodore Herlich, questioned his client\u2019s blood-alcohol level \u2014\u00a0 and contended he was hampered by a foot he injured in a fight at the club before the crash, \u201cwhich could have played a role in why the brakes were not pressed harder.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A drunken driver who fatally mowed down four people at\u00a0a Manhattan July 4 celebration would have kept driving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[303,1015,8077,8078,75,84,83,57,9,24,63,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-9655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-deaths","10":"tag-drunk-driving","11":"tag-independence-day","12":"tag-manhattan","13":"tag-manhattan-headlines","14":"tag-manhattan-news","15":"tag-metro","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}