Drunk Driver Kills Teen Cyclist In Gerritsen Beach, Police Say

Alex Ellefson -
An FDNY ambulance. (Photo: Tomás Fano / Flickr)

A teenage bicyclist was killed Sunday night during a head-on collision with a drunk driver in Gerritsen Beach, police say.

Sean Ryan, 17, was riding his bicycle north in the median on Gerritsen Avenue around 9pm when a white Honda Accord traveling in the opposite direction drifted out of its lane and struck him, according to the NYPD. Emergency responders pronounced Ryan dead at the scene. The fatal crash occurred a half mile from Ryan’s Gerritsen Beach home — at the intersection with Gotham Avenue, according to the NYPD.

Police arrested the driver, 24-year-old Bay Ridge resident Thomas Groarke, and charged him with driving while intoxicated as well as vehicular manslaughter.