The drunk Mercedes driver who killed two and injured three others on Manhattan’s Upper West Side was hit with manslaughter charges Saturday for the wild, out-of-control crash, officials said.
Elvin Suarez, 61, was three blocks from his home when he drove his Mercedes-Benz SUV into a parked Volkswagen Jetta SUV on Amsterdam Ave. near W. 109th St., then careened ahead and vaulted onto both a pedestrian island and the sidewalk, slamming into a crowd of people walking by, cops said.
When the fatal 6 p.m. crash occurred Friday, he was traveling at a high rate of speed, possibly reaching 80 mph, police sources said.
He scored an 0.1 on a breathalyzer test after the crash, well above the legal limit of 0.08, cops said.
Killed in the crash were Jason Negron, 46, and Michael Saint-Hilaire, 35, police said.
Detectives charged Suarez with manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, vehicular assault and drunk driving. His arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court was pending Saturday.
Saint-Hilaire, a father of triplets, was planning a gathering for his kids’ upcoming birthday, longtime friend Zubosqui Garcia, 37, told the Daily News Friday.
“Their birthday is on June 7,” he said. “He was going to celebrate with his children.”
“He was a hardworking man and a loving guy,” Garcia said. “To have his life taken this way is senseless.”
Saint-Hilaire was a worker at Mt. Sinai Health System, but he aspired to join the NYPD and become a cop, Garcia said.
“He just got a new apartment downtown. He was achieving all his goals,” Garcia said. “He will be missed. He was loved by so many.”
Negron worked as a doorman and leaves behind a daughter, heartbroken relatives said.
“He was a great guy and a great dad,” said a family member, who declined to give his name.
Both Saint-Hilaire and Negron lived a short distance from the scene of the fatal crash, cops said. Two other pedestrians, a 44-year-old man and a 36-year-old man, were also rushed to the hospital, where they’re expected to survive.
Also hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries was a 51-year-old man who was sitting in a parked Chevrolet Astro van that Suarez slammed his Mercedes into in the blistering crash.
Suarez was caught on surveillance camera smashing into the Volkswagen Jetta on Amsterdam Ave. about 40 feet south of W. 109th St. before blowing through the intersection and sailing over the concrete island onto the sidewalk, police said.
“He hit the car and went up on the sidewalk. He pinned one guy under the car. He was completely disfigured,” said David Lawrence, 65, who was nearby celebrating his son’s graduation from Columbia University when the crash occurred. “Half his body was visible from underneath the car. It was a horror show. There was nothing anyone could do.”
“The other guy was face-up on the sidewalk, getting CPR. He wasn’t responding, not at all,” he said. “The driver of the van was outside, leaning against the car with nothing but a scraped knee. It was hard to watch.”
The Mercedes finally came to a rest when it struck the van, which was thrown forward, causing a chain reaction that damaged four other parked cars.
EMS rushed Suarez and the other wounded to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, where Saint-Hilaire and Negron died.
A nearby resident watched from her window overlooking the scene as the horror unfolded.
“There were two men lying on the ground. Another man was giving one of them CPR. Someone was screaming, ‘We need an ambulance! Where are the ambulances?’” Jaime Cunningham, 49, told The News.
“It was awful,” she added. “The black car, the Mercedes, was going fast.”
