HIGH SPEED, ALCOHOL, AND EARLY A.M. DEATH
Cars collide in Bronx, killing two and injuring three as one vehicle hits subway support pillar; woman faces DWI charges
Two men in a speeding BMW X4 were killed and three women in another car were hospitalized following a blistering caughton-camera Bronx crash that sent one of the vehicles hurtling into a subway station pillar early Saturday, police said.
The surviving driver, a 36-year-old woman, was charged with drunken driving, cops said.
Jamie Winston was behind the wheel of a Nissan Rogue with two female passengers and was about to make a left from E. Fordham Road onto Jerome Ave. at 4:13 a.m. when the BMW heading north on Jerome Ave. rammed into them, cops said.
The BMW was traveling at a high rate of speed and had blown a red light before slamming into the Rogue, cops said.
The 23-year-old BMW driver, who was identified by police as John Delorbe, lost control of the car, which kept on going and slammed into a pillar for the elevated Fordham Road No. 4 train station, cops said.
Surveillance footage acquired by the Daily News shows the BMW careening into the blue and white-striped pillar.
The car struck the stanchion on its passenger side and appeared to crack and bend around the pillar as pieces of the car flew down the street.
A man walking a bicycle witnessed the crash, but didn’t stop to check on the victims as he walked around the mangled car, the video shows. A few minutes later, several other witnesses cautiously approached the destroyed vehicle with its airbags deployed, trying to peer at the victims through the cracked windows.
“Whoever was in there they had to [have] died,” said Bronx resident Devere Barnhill, 38, who walked by the mangled car early Saturday. “That was an instant death. I never saw a car that totaled in my entire life.”
The Nissan “was a little bit crushed, but the other one, the BMW, was completely crushed. But, you know, that’s what happens when you’re intoxicated.”
Delorbe and his passenger, 21-year-old Angel Tussen, were both rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, but couldn’t be saved.
The two men were from the Bronx. Tussen lived just a half mile from the crash. Delorbe lived about a mile from where he died.
Gathering at their Fordham home, Tussen’s family wailed in anguish as they hugged one another for support.
“His mom is really harmed. His mom doesn’t have no words,” Tussen’s cousin Erica Burgos, 23, told the Daily News. “All the family is really devastated because he was one of the youngest boys in the family.”
Tussen had reached out to his mother a few hours before the crash, Burgos recalled.
“He was in good spirits. He asked his mom [if] he could be able to eat,” she recalled. “He was on his way home to eat. That was not the best option to get in the car, but he was on his way here.”
Tussen’s sister said that her sibling and Delorbe were both “decent boys.”
“He was a loving boy to his family and his friends,” said the sister, who wished not to be named. “We’re just coping. Honestly, we’re just sticking together as a family.”
Winston and her two passengers, a 26-year-old woman and a 27-year-old woman, were also rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital. Their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, police said.
Cops arrested Winston at the hospital, charging her with drunken driving and driving while impaired. Her arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending.
On Saturday morning, a single blue sneaker could be found among the shattered glass and scattered debris at the crash site.
The Sanitation Department had swept up the debris that had been scattered down the block into a little pile around the pillar.
Cops were investigating the cause of the crash Saturday.
The BMW had temporary tags from a Georgia used car dealer, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the car, or the plates, had been reported stolen, police said.
It was not immediately clear if Delorbe had been drinking or was impaired as he charged up Jerome Ave.
“That was sad. It was a sad death,” Barnhill said. “People drink. They think they know the road. You could be the best driver but if there’s another person that can’t drive, that can be an accident.”
Saturday’s crash comes as motor vehicle crashes have claimed the lives of 20 drivers and passengers this year as of Wednesday. Last year, 13 drivers and passengers had died in the corresponding period, cops said.