Bar accepts restrictions following deadly crash
EWING >> An infamous Campus Town bar linked to the December 2018 car crash that killed a student and greatly impacted The College of New Jersey community has agreed to sell less booze and to reduce its hours of operation as it faces legal scrutiny from a grieving family seeking justice.
Landmark Americana Tap and Grill in Ewing Township will stop selling certain specials, including mixed-drink “fishbowls,” pitchers and buckets of beer, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control announced Friday.
The business, formally known as Landmark Ewing LLC, will no longer operate past midnight and will sell only one alcoholic beverage per patron at a time effective Jan. 15, according to the conditions of a newly imposed consent order.
“When alcohol and driving are mixed, the consequences can be deadly, so it is vitally important that establishments that serve alcohol do so responsibly,” Grewal said in a press statement. “The restrictions placed on the Landmark Americana will help prevent excessive drinking and other unsafe behaviors that can lead to tragedy.”
David Lamar V, who turned 23 earlier this month, has been charged with vehicular homicide and seven counts of assault by auto on allegations he consumed numerous drinks as a Landmark patron and then recklessly drove and crashed his car into another vehicle, killing 20-year-old Michael Sot and injuring other victims.
Sot, a TCNJ sophomore student, was acting as a designated driver for classmates when his Dodge Charger was struck headon in the early morning hours of
Dec. 2 by a Kia Optima driven by Lamar, a West Windsor resident. Sot died Dec. 4 from his lifethreatening injuries.
Sot’s family is suing Landmark Americana, saying the bartending staff continued to serve Lamar with drink after drink despite obvious signs he was drunk. The wrongful death lawsuit says Lamar had been served “vast amounts of alcohol” prior to the 2 a.m. crash.
As Lamar’s criminal case plays out in New Jersey Superior Court, he is confined to house arrest with electronic monitoring. He is required to pay for alcohol monitoring as a condition of his pretrial release from jail.
A relatively new bar, Landmark Americana recently opened at TCNJ’s Campus Town center and was operating under a temporary authorization permit issued on Oct. 18, 2018. Landmark’s temporary permit has been extended to Jan. 15, according to state officials, who said the permit thereafter will be renewed for another 30-day period with the restrictive conditions set forth in the consent order. Following that, renewals will be considered on a monthto-month basis, authorities said Friday in a press release.