![\"West](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/west-side-highway-near-w-126720392.jpg\")
Mercedes driver Jay Taveras, 27, was arrested in the early-morning crash that killed Thomas Dunlea, 58, in late December of 2021, cops said. Google Maps<\/p>\nA hit-and-run Mercedes driver who struck and killed another motorist on the West Side Highway five years ago was finally arrested this week, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jay Taveras, 27, was charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident in the early-morning crash that killed Thomas Dunlea, 58, in late December of 2021, according to authorities.<\/p>\n
Taveras was picked up by investigators Wednesday evening while at a parole meeting related to a Manhattan attempted assault conviction, according to law enforcement sources and State Correction records.<\/p>\n
Dunlea \u2013 behind the wheel of a 2005 Hyundai Tucson \u2013 was driving south on the West Side Highway and began making a left turn onto eastbound West 50th Street around 4:20 a.m. Dec. 29, 2021 when Taveras, operating a 2021 Mercedes-Benz sedan, hit him head-on, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mercedes driver Jay Taveras, 27, was arrested in the early-morning crash that killed Thomas Dunlea, 58, in late December of 2021, cops said. Google Maps<\/p>\n
The impact threw Dunlea, of Rye Brook in Westchester County, from his vehicle, cops said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He suffered trauma throughout his body and was rushed to New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries on Sunday, January 2022, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Taveras brazenly ran off on foot, according to authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was arraigned Thursday on an indictment and ordered held on $500,000 bail or $750,000 bond, over prosecutors\u2019 request for $1 million bail or $3 million bond.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendant\u2019s alleged out of control driving caused a horrific tragedy,\u201d Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. \u201cFurthermore, we allege that the defendant then flees the scene, leaving the victim to die without ever alerting law enforcement. I am grateful to the dogged work of our prosecutors for building this case and pursuing accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
In total, Taveras has seven prior arrests, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was sentenced to two to four years behind bars on the attempted assault conviction, prosecutors said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He spent about a year behind bars, from July of 2024 to July of 2025, before being released on parole, records show.<\/p>\n
Taveras\u2019 conditional release date from parole was on April 18, with the maximum parole expiration date set for Nov. 18, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His arrest history includes a May 4, 2023 robbery in which allegedly punched a stranger in the face while an accomplice snatched the victim\u2019s cell phone in Washington Heights, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His most recent arrest was on March 9 for drug possession, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A hit-and-run Mercedes driver who struck and killed another motorist on the West Side Highway five years ago…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":765006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5417,5249,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5257,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-765005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-hit-and-run","10":"tag-manhattan","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-nypd","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-us-news","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116497071582116580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}