Police have taken a drunk driver into custody for fatally running over a young Revel rider after he fell off his moped in Midtown Sunday night, according to authorities.
Upper East Side resident Andreas Marino, 22, lost control of his blue rental scooter and was ejected off of it while heading north in the First Avenue Tunnel near East 48th Street at 11:17 p.m. on Sept. 19, police said, adding that he was not wearing a helmet at the time.
Cops said an SUV driver, also heading north, fatally struck Marino while he was lying in the roadway.
Paramedics rushed the victim to Bellevue Hospital with severe injuries to his head and body, and he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight, according to cops.
The 44-year-old driver stayed at the scene and refused to take a breath test, but police took him into custody for suspected drunk driving, according to an NYPD spokesman.
The Department rep said it’s not clear if Marino was killed from falling off the moped or because he was run over by the driver, something the city’s Medical Examiner will determine.
NYPD have yet to formally charge the driver or reveal his identity.
A Revel spokesman said Andreas was an experienced moped user having clocked 75 rides without any violations to his name.
“Our sympathies are with Andreas’ loved ones. He was an avid Revel rider and this is a loss for our entire community,” said Owen Stone in a statement. “While we are still gathering details, one thing we can say for certain is that this is yet another senseless tragedy involving a reportedly drunk driver who should not have been behind the wheel. We need to do more to make the city safer for everyone who uses our streets, not just SUVs.”
Last summer, three people died while riding the battery-powered blue scooters in the city, and Revel shut off service for a month before relaunching with more measures they hoped would increase safety, including a mandatory 21-question quiz and a helmet safety.
Competitor company Lime even launched its own moped service explicitly positioning themselves as a safer alternative to Revel, boasting an entry test vetted by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and artificial intelligence that can tell if riders are wearing their legally-required helmets.
The city’s Department of Transportation banned Revel scooters from the Manhattan and Queensboro bridges on Friday after less than two months, due to safety concerns of riders being hit by faster cars on the two spans or illegally scooting down the bike and pedestrian paths.
