Family of victims killed by July Fourth drunk driver recall shock and horror

Her daughter had asked her to join their Fourth of July party at a Lower East Side park, but Donna Rosario wasn’t up to it.

Tragedy struck just hours later, when an out-of-control pickup truck crashed through a park gate — injuring Rosario’s daughter and grandson and killing the daughter’s boyfriend and his mother.

“When they told me, I just screamed and spasmed,” said Rosario, 59, whose daughter Jessica and grandson Jakob miraculously survived the horrific crash.

“Right away when they told me, I thought it was Jessica — that something happened to her and Jakob. We were all in total shock. We didn’t believe it because all the barbecues that we went to, it was perfect.”

Killed in the crash were Hernan Pinkney, 38, his mother, Lucille Pinkney, 59, and 43-year-old East Harlem resident Ana Morel. Cops said the carnage was caused by a drunk pickup driver who slammed into a crowd at Corlears Hook Park on the corner of Water St. and Jackson St. just after 8:55 p.m., minutes before Independence Day fireworks were set to explode over the skies of Manhattan.

Eight others, ranging in age from 11 to 68, were injured in the crash, according to cops.

Jessica, who was released from the hospital along with her son, told her mom what happened last night.

“Lucy was laughing and dancing and Herman, her son, was taking a video of it,” the parent recounted to the Daily News.

“Jessica was near the grill near the gate and all of a sudden, she felt a big impact. She went flying, then Jakob went flying. Then she was looking for Herman and she saw him and Lucy underneath that car and everybody was screaming.”

Jessica’s sister, Lisa Pellot, 39, said Herman Pinkney hung on a while before he died.

“He was still kind of breathing. He was trying to fight for his life but he succumbed to his injuries in the hospital,” she said. “The family friend who went over there to identify the body — she said that he looked horrible, that his face wasn’t even recognizable.”

She said her sister is managing her grief — and pain.

“It’s affected her and she cant even hardly walk, the poor thing,” Pellot said of her sister.

Rosario said Jessica blames herself.

“She keeps saying it’s her fault, it’s her fault, it’s her fault that Herman and Lucy died,” Rosario said, “and I said, ‘No it’s not. it’s something tragic that happened that this bastard did to innocent people.’”

Cops identified the Ford F-150 driver as Daniel Hyden, 44, of Monmouth Junction, N.J., charging him with vehicular homicide, driving while intoxicated and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

As the victims lay pinned beneath the truck, a mob of people pulled the driver out of the vehicle and beat him until police arrived, according to witnesses.

Sources said Hyden is a substance abuse counselor and author. They added that Hyden got into a fight with someone over his “teaching methods” back in 2023 at Recoveries R Us, where he was working on the Upper East Side.

“We are deeply saddened by the news of yesterday’s tragedy,” said a representative of Mahnattan-based Services for the UnderServed, where Hyden is currently employed. “Our hearts go out to the victims’ friends and family. As this is an ongoing police investigation, we are unable to comment further.”

Hyden is the author of “The Sober Addict: A Guide on How to Be Functional With the Dysfunctional Disease of Addiction.”

“My jobs are my passions and each allows me to advocate on the behalf of all those impacted by the disease of addiction,” Hyden, who also goes by DC Hyden, wrote on his LinkedIn page. “My mission is to use my lifelong experience with addiction to teach addicts how to save themselves and achieve long term recovery.”

He suffered head and face injuries during the crash and was also taken to a hospital, police said.

Responding officers smelled alcohol on the driver’s breath after he was speeding through the Lower East Side, blew past a stop sign, jumped a curb, blasted through a fence and rammed through a crowd of people, horrified witnesses said.

“It was a senseless tragedy and I hope that guy gets a very long time in prison,”  Pellot said. “They need to do something about all these drunk drivers. Like, look what happened.”

Pellot said Jessica and Herman had been together for more than a decade, planning on getting married soon.

Rosario said both families were close.

“I just can’t believe Herman’s gone,” she said.

“I can’t believe it. He used to be on his game equipment, he loves his games,” she continued, adding that Herman loved basketball and had a collection of basketball shoes at the house.

“Lucy had a good heart made out of gold,” said Rosario, who has cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. “She knew what I was going through. She spoke to me — she gave me courage and everything,”

She said Lucy’s ex-husband, Herman’s father, had come to New York City from North Carolina to spend the holiday with Jessica, Herman and Jakob.

“He’s in total shock,” Rosario said. “To come down and see his ex-wife and son gone. They were one of these couples like they can’t be together but they love each other, like they can tolerate each other as friends.”

She said Lucy worked at a McDonald’s on First Ave. and Herman worked in maintenance.

Witnesses said that more than 30 people were in the crowd at the park at the time of the crash.

Mayor Adams, who responded to the scene, called Thursday’s fatal crash “a tragic incident.”

“A driver drove into a crowd of people who were just celebrating like so many New Yorkers and Americans are doing right now,” he said as he stood beside NYPD and FDNY officials.

Hyden’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court was pending Friday evening.