Early yesterday morning, a 22 year old man was killed by a drunk driver's car in Midtown. Twenty-two year old Benjamin Brown and some friends had been out partying, and they crossed 57th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues when a 2006 black Dodge Charger hit him around 3AM. The police apprehended the Charger's driver, Bronx resident Michael Hunt, a block away and found that he was drunk - and his car's windshield was cracked. Hunt was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated; police believe Hunt had just come from a club. Brown, who was from Stamford, Connecticut and recently graduated from Fordham, was pronounced dead at St. Luke's.
Not that this is a mitigating factor in this terrible accident, but it seems like Brown's group jaywalked when they crossed in the middle of the street. There's no telling how Hunt's driving would have been different at an intersection, but maybe this is a lesson to stick to the crosswalks.
