The children left without parents, gruesome injuries and countless lives shattered by a drunk driver’s July 4 rampage were laid bare at his Manhattan sentencing Friday, with 24 years behind bars handed down for the carnage that a judge said resulted from reckless apathy. State Supreme Court Justic e April Newbauer said Daniel Hyden, 46, valued human life slightly, “if at all,” when he plowed his pickup truck into a group of Lower East Side residents celebrating Independence Day in 2024. Killed were Hernan Pinkney, 38; his mother, Lucille Pinkney, 59; Ana Morel, 43; and 30-year-old Emily Ruiz. A former addiction counselor and author on alcoholism, Hyden was acutely aware of the threat he posed when he got into his vehicle after a night of drinking, the judge said. “You chose to engage in a series of highly risky actions that you knew could easily lead to someone’s death,” Newbauer said. “You very likely knew that you could kill them and didn’t care.” Barry Williams for New York Daily NewsDaniel Hyden is pictured in police custody at the NYPD 7th Precinct stationhouse the day after the fatal crash. (Barry Williams for New York Daily News) Loved ones of the dead and several who survived the horrific incident provided tearful statements about the horror that occurred in Corlears Hook Park when Hyden rammed his Ford F-150 into the community barbecue near the Vladeck Houses less than an hour after he was thrown off a nearby party boat for being too drunk. Lily Ruiz, whose daughter, Emily, died after a five-day battle on life support after the incident, said she was at a loss for words. “I was asked to articulate in two to three minutes the impact of the senseless, reckless act that took my daughter’s young life, and I thought, How can I convey the gut-wrenching heartbreak I felt in that moment, when I had to look into my daughter’s eyes as she lay under that truck, gasping for air that would never arrive to her lungs?” Ruiz said. “There are no words to appropriately honor my daughter’s life or her loss. I mourn the life she was supposed to live. I mourn her face, her smile, her eyes, her hair. I mourn never hearing her call me Mom again, but mostly I mourn for my daughter and my grandson and all they have been denied.” Obtained by Daily NewsFatal crash victims, from left, Ana Morel, Emily Ruiz, Hernan Pinkney and his mother, Lucille Pinkney. (Obtained by Daily News) In a statement read by prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos, a young woman who was one of seven grievously injured during the incident said Hyden had not only left her traumatized, but had also stolen her confidence. “While I was not hit by your car, something you smashed into broke my face. This face that will be a first impression for many in my upcoming career,” Halena Herrera said. “I had really low self-esteem during adolescence, so having scars on a face that I worked so hard to accept is still hard to deal with.” Hyden was found guilty of second-degree murder, aggravated vehicular homicide and related offenses at a bench trial in November. Newbauer sentenced him to significant terms on each of the charges, to be served concurrently, saying she’d taken his remorse, history of alcoholism, military service and lack of a criminal record before the horrific incident into account. In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Bragg said, “While this prison sentence will not reverse the fatalities, injuries and trauma, I hope this sentencing brings a measure of comfort for those who were impacted by this mass casualty event.” Barry Williams for New York Daily NewsDaniel Hyden appears in Manhattan Supreme Court on Aug. 1, 2024. (Barry Williams for New York Daily News) At trial, the judge heard evidence of how Hyden was driving 39 mph when he accelerated through a stop sign, barreled through a construction zone, and jumped a sidewalk at speeds of up to 54 mph, ramming through a chain-link fence and into the group celebrating the holiday. As bodies lay under his truck, he sought to flee the scene, the court heard at trial. Hector Moreno, the childhood friend of victim Hernan Pinkney, testified about reaching into Hyden’s car and pulling the key out of the ignition, and finding the driver shirtless with his foot on the gas and no seat belt on. Excerpts written by the Monmouth, N.J., man, from his book “The Sober Addict: A Guide on How to Be Functional With the Dysfunctional Disease of Addiction” were read aloud at the trial. “’A real danger to others, my bike and myself when I was on the road intoxicated,’” one passage read. The book wasn’t the only chilling irony in the case. In a lengthy statement Friday, Hyden said he had lost his own sister to a New Jersey drunk driver’s recklessness in 2021. He said he’d written a victim impact statement but never got to read it — because he was on Rikers Island, charged with causing others the very pain it spoke of. “What kind of human being would put human beings through the same thing they went through?” Hyden said, before repeatedly apologizing to those harmed. “There was no intent to hurt them,” Hyden later said. “This was an accident I caused, and I’m sorry.” Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily NewsFirefighters and police respond after multiple people were struck by a pickup truck inside Corlears Hook Park in Manhattan on July 4, 2024. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News) A relative of the Pinkneys, Starkema Lewis, said Hyden had terrorized a tight-knit community and that his actions were no accident. “The trauma hasn’t just affected us individually,” she said. “It has changed the entire fabric of our family and our Lower East Side community. Children are growing up without their parents. Parents have buried their children. Spouses are left alone to face the world without their partners.” “Daniel Hyden made a conscious choice to drink and drive — fully aware of the risks, fully aware of the devastation it could cause. That choice took lives, destroyed families and shattered futures. It was not a mistake. It was a reckless disregard for human life.” Lewis said no outcome could bring justice for Lucille Pinkney’s son, who lost both his mother and his brother. “There is a quietness in him now, a heaviness that no one can lift,” she said. “And that is the kind of damage no sentence can ever undo.” ...read more read less