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Update: Driver Arrested For DWI After Fatally Dragging Man Under Tour Bus
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 8, 2011
Modified May 8, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published May 8, 2011
Modified May 8, 2011
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A tour bus driver was charged with a DWI and arrested yesterday after he fatally ran over a pedestrian in Hell's Kitchen. Fifty-seven-year-old driver Steve Drappel hit the 29-year-old victim as he was walking eastbound across Ninth Avenue at 47th street just before 10 p.m. last night, and witnesses say the victim was pinned under the bus' wheel, and dragged for half a block: “I saw him lying under the back wheel and he was moving, but then the cops made the bus driver move the bus back and then he died. They put a sheet over him...It was horrible. I’m visiting New York City. This is my fourth day here and this is the second death I’ve seen,̶ eyewitness Ashley Fishner told CBS.
We received this tip from a reader around 10:23 p.m. last night: "Someone got hit/dragged by a busload of Asian tourists on 9th Ave just south of 47th, around 10pm tonight. Gruesome...didn't see it myself but a giant wet trail leading from middle of ave to back wheel of stopped bus, complete with bits of flesh...nypd/fynd everywhere." Witnesses told the News that there "was a woman who screamed at the top of her lungs" on the scene, and that it was a "bloody mess." The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he died. None of the passengers on the Travel Lynx tour bus were injured in the accident.
Drappel failed a breathalyzer test last night, and was taken into custody; this morning, he was charged with vehicular manslaughter and DWI. Travel Lynx is based out of North Carolina, and has no other record of crashed or accidents in the last two years. In March, a tour bus which was speeding overturned on the southbound New England Thruway in the Bronx, killing 15 people.
Update: As a tipster points out, there's a Steve Drappel who is also from West Palm Beach, FL (the same as the arrested one) who likes the "I HATE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T DRIVE FOR SHIT" group on his Facebook page.
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dwi
fatal accident
hell's kitchen
tour bus
travel lynx
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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