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Daniel Crawford, a 52-year-old father of two from Bloomfield, was pronounced dead at nearby Queens Hospital Center in Jamaica, where he worked as a phlebotomist the past 2½ years.
Crawford was headed to work when a Mercedes Benz driven by 22-year-old Alamin Ahmed t-boned his Toyota Camry on Parsons Boulevard in Kew Gardens around 4:30 a.m. Friday, authorities said.
A security guard told the Daily News that he “haven’t seen anything like that in person. I’ve only seen things like that on movies or television.”
“It looked like an explosion,” an FDNY electrician told the newspaper.
Police said Ahmed registered a blood alcohol concentration above New York State’s legal limit of .08.
He was arraigned Saturday on charges that include vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and DWI.
“Few choices are more selfish than driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “In this case, the defendant is accused of getting behind the wheel while under the influence of alcohol and criminally disregarding the rules of the road with tragic, deadly results.”
Crawford, who’s just welcomed a new grandson last week, was known for sending uplifting messages on Facebook on his way to work before dawn each day.
He was proud of the work he was doing in the fight against COVID-19, posting photos of himself in his scrubs with the tag “Frontliners.”
Crawford was “a well-respected colleague,” who “will be deeply missed by all those who knew him and worked with him,” hospital officials said in a statement.
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