Driver pleads guilty in bicyclist’s death
Blood-alcohol content was four times legal limit at time of Port Ewen crash
A Port Ewen man who was drunk behind the wheel when he struck and killed a bicyclist last September pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter Friday, the Ulster District Attorney’s Office said.
This is the second vehicular manslaughter conviction for John J. Ronk, 41, of 272 New Salem Road.
Ronk entered his plea Friday in Ulster County Court before Judge Donald A. Williams and faces a maximum of five to 15 years in state prison when he’s sentenced July 26.
Ronk admitted that on Sept. 14, 2017, about 7:30 p.m., he drove a Nissan Xterra SUV while intoxicated and struck and killed Brian Jones, 41, also of New Salem Road in Port Ewen. The District Attorney’s Office said Jones was a father of six.
Ronk’s blood-alcohol content was 0.32 percent, four times the state’s threshold for drunken driving, the prosecutor’s office said.
Ronk said in court Friday that he drank several large cans of beer with a high alcohol content prior to the collision and that he was on his way to a store to buy more beer when he struck Jones, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Evidence collected at the scene by the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office and state police found Ronk had crossed the double-yellow line on New Salem Road in Port Ewen and struck the rear tire of Jones’ bicycle,
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Jones died soon after at the HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus in Kingston.
After striking Jones, two wheels from Ronk’s vehicle went up onto a guardrail before Ronk corrected and struck a telephone pole, and he then tried to flee on foot, according to authorities.
A passing driver called 911, and Ronk was arrested within minutes, the District Attorney’s Office said Friday.
When Ronk was 23 and living in Rhinebeck, he pleaded guilty in Dutchess County Court on Aug. 17, 2000, to vehicular
manslaughter in connection with a crash that killed 32-year-old Albert J. Glosque, who lived at the same address as Ronk.
In that case, Ronk admitted in court that he drank at least 18 beers while he and Glosque were fishing on July 4, 2000, and said he lost control of his pickup on the way home after swerving to avoid a deer on Morton Road in Rhinebeck. The truck rolled over twice, and Glosque, a passenger, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ronk was sentenced on Oct. 30, 2000, to a maximum of three years in state prison. The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has said he was in prison from November 2000 until July 2002.