L.I. Boy Scout, 12, dies after 5 are struck by suspected drunken driver

One of five Boy Scouts who was struck by a suspected drunken driver on a Long Island, N.Y., road on Sunday has died from his injuries.

Thomas Murphy, 59, was driving a Mercedes at about 2 p.m. when his vehicle struck the group walking north on the roadway in Manorville, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

The child who died was identified as 12-year-old Andrew McMorris.

“We are sad to confirm the death of one of our youth members following a vehicle-related incident while hiking,” the Suffolk County Council of the Boy Scouts of America said yesterday. “We offer our deepest condolences to the victim’s family, and we will support them in any way we can.”

The other four Scouts, from Troop 161, were injured. Thomas Lane, 15, was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital with serious injuries. Denis Lane, 16, Kaden Lynch, 15, and 15-year-old Matthew Yakaboski sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

“I saw them right off the bat when I was driving, they weren’t hard to see, in my opinion,” Sean Bryan told Newsday. “They were walking in the street the way you should be doing it if you’re going to be doing it, toward the traffic, toward oncoming traffic.”

Bryan, a Manorville resident, told the newspaper that the five kids were part of a larger group of children and adults who were walking together.

When rescue officials arrived, “children were on the ground,” Manorville Fire Department First Assistant Chief Chris Lindberg told Newsday.

Murphy of Holbrook was initially charged with driving while intoxicated.