New York driver charged
THE truck driver who fatally struck Geelong r resident Madison Lyden at N New York’s Central Park h has briefly appeared in court c charged with drink-driving.
Ms Lyden, 23, died Friday afternoon in New York when she swerved out of the way of an Uber and in front of the truck. She wasn’t wearing a helmet.
The tragedy came at the end of a two-month trip through America and Asia with friends.
Police arrested the driver, Felipe Chairez, 44, after finding three empty cans of beer in the cab of his truck, and charged him with driving under the influence.
He admitted drinking two beers with lunch before leaving work at a downtown construction site to take a load of garbage to the Bronx.
The driver’s blood alcohol level was between 0.04 and 0.06, according to court documents.
But his lawyer Kenneth Ware said in court yesterday it was possible the beers would not have impacted his driving because of the food he had eaten.
Chairez was ordered to surrender his licence and released without being required to post bail after being charged with drinkdriving, driving while impaired and operating a commercial vehicle while intoxicated.
In New York, the standard for a drunken driving charge is 0.08, but for drivers of commercial vehicles it is 0.04. The court heard Chairez had been a truck driver for 17 years and had no previous arrests or history of issues in his work.