Daniel Hyden, the accused drunk driver who plowed his pickup truck into a crowd at a Fourth of July celebration at a Lower East Side park, killing three people, had been thrown off a party boat for being drunk and disorderly a short time before the fatal crash, the Daily News has learned.
Hyden, 44, was ejected from the Boss Lady NYC excursion boat and escorted off Pier 36 Thursday evening by police after he clashed with the boat’s crew, who said he was too drunk to remain aboard, police sources and a ship employee confirmed.
Pier 36 is on the Lower East Side between the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges — just four blocks from Corlears Hook Park, where Hyden’s Ford F-150 pickup truck blew a stop sign, vaulted a curb, crashed through a fence, and slammed into several parkgoers.
Workers recalled Hyden was ejected from the boat at about 8 p.m. just as the Boss Lady was about to depart and catch the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks show.
“He was drunk and touching a girl,” one cruise employee told the Daily News Friday. “He wanted to fight with some guys, and he was drunk and they threw him off the boat.”
But Hyden remained stubborn, remaining on the pier, the worker said.
“He just stood there, not willing to go, so they called the cops because we didn’t want him to do anything to anyone else.”
Police escorted him off the pier and let him go without any criminal charges after the cruise operator refunded him his money, a police source said.
“The dispute was resolved among the involved parties,” a police spokesman said.
Hyden was recorded on the body camera of one of the responding police officers who escorted him off the pier, a police source with knowledge of the case said.
Killed in the crash on the corner of Water St. and Jackson St. just after 8:55 p.m. Thursday were Hernan Pinkney, 38, his mother, Lucille Pinkney, 59, and 43-year-old East Harlem resident Ana Morel.
Eight others, ranging in age from 11 to 68, were injured in the crash, according to cops.
Hyden, who lives in the Bronx and Monmouth Junction, N.J., was charged with vehicular homicide, driving while intoxicated and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and was ordered held without bail during a brief arraignment proceeding Saturday.
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.
He’s also 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.”
Witnesses said that more than 30 people were in the crowd at the park at the time of the crash.
Outraged witnesses pulled Hyden from the truck and assaulted him as cops were called. When officers arrived, he was on the ground, beaten and bloodied next to the pickup truck, without any shirt or shoes.
“When he stood up, his balance was uneven,” prosecutors said in court papers. “[He] had bloodshot eyes, was stumbling on his feet, and had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath and clothing.”
A crowd had gathered and were “yelling and visibly excited,” prosecutors said. “[They] screamed that the defendant was the only person sitting in the driver’s seat when the truck crashed and there were no other passengers in the vehicle.”
While being treated at Bellevue Hospital, Hyden admitted “that he had a few alcoholic drinks,” prosecutors said.
With Colin Mixson
