Police: Naked drunk driver fatally strikes a pedestrian

(Staten Island - WABC, Oct. 19, 2006) (WABC) -- Authorities say a naked and apparently drunk driver fatally struck a pedestrian and then flipped her out-of-control car into a parking lot in the Arlington section of Staten Island.

Police say 24-year-old Taliyah Taylor was not wearing any clothes when she drove into the man at the intersection of Forest and South Avenues at around 11 p.m. The pedestrian, 41-year-old Larry Simon, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Taylor's late model Nissan Maxima then struck sideswiped a Toyota, kept going west for about 300 yards, jumped a curb and hurtled an six-foot fence into a parking lot shared by Lowe's and Kohl's Department store. Security guards from the store pulled the nude woman out of the badly damaged car.

She was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

Eyewitness News has learned Taylor, who was wearing a seat belt, suffered only bumps and bruises. She was charged with driving while intoxicated and vehicular manslaughter.

Witnesses said the brother of the victim, known as Big Larry, was waiting for him in the nearby Chic-n-Bones bar when he was told a pedestrian had been killed outside. When he went outside to the scene, he learned his brother had been killed.

The witnesses said Taylor appeared to be speeding before the crash.

Terrence Etheridge, who was taking a break outside a restaurant where he works, said, "I heard a thump and turned in time to see the woman hit the couple's car. Their air bags saved them, because she had to be doing 90 to 100, and she never hit the brakes."

The pedestrian was hurled up to 200 feet and the driver didn't try to stop. "I don't see any skid marks," said NYPD Lt. Ross LaMorte.

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