A driver traveling at "an apparent high rate of speed" was killed in a crash in Central Park last night, the NYPD said.
Officers responded to a 911 call about a car crash at 11:13 p.m. on Friday night and found a 29-year-old man unconscious in a 2013 Nissan Altima, authorities say.
He was taken to St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, where he died.
According to a preliminary investigation by the NYPD Highway District's Collision Investigation, the driver was heading south on West Drive "at an apparent high rate of speed at approximately West 60 Street" and "failed to negotiate a curve in the roadway, before mounting the west curb line onto the grass area and then striking an oak tree, head on, and coming to a rest."
The Daily News reports that the tree was "about 300 feet from the roadway." A homeless woman told the paper she thought the driver was going 60-70 mph, "I heard him squeal off the road and hit the curb. It looked like he tried to turn the wheel to the left to dodge a pole and he came straight up the lawn."
The speed limit inside Central Park is 25 mph.
