Syracuse coach hits, kills man on highway

Associated Press

SYRACUSE, N.Y.

Longtime Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim struck and killed a man along an interstate late Wednesday night as he tried to avoid hitting the man’s disabled vehicle, police say.

Syracuse police say Jorge Jimenez, 51, was an occupant in a black Dodge Charger with three others when they lost control on a patch of ice and hit a guardrail before midnight Wednesday on I-690 in Syracuse.

Boeheim struck Jimenez with his GMC Acadia while trying to avoid the disabled car, which was resting perpendicular on the darkened highway. The group had been heading toward the median for safety. Jimenez was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Another man in the group suffered minor injuries, police said.

“I am heartbroken that a member of our community died as the result of last night’s accident,” Boeheim said in a prepared statement. The 74-year-old Basketball Hall of Fame coach said he and his wife Juli “extend our deepest sympathies to the Jimenez family.”

He said he would not comment further “out of respect for those involved.”

Police said Boeheim has cooperated with the probe. He even used his cell phone light to warn other drivers of the disabled car after the accident, police said.

“At this time we have no reason to believe that there are criminal charges that will be coming for anyone,” Syracuse Police Chief Kenton T. Buckner said at a news conference.

Police said sobriety tests administered to Boeheim and the driver of the other vehicle were negative for signs of impairment. Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said he has known Boeheim for 40 years and the coach does not drink.

“This story obviously is newsworthy because of the notoriety of the coach,” Fitzpatrick said. “But this is the loss of a human being. It was an accident in the purest sense of the word.”

Jimenez’s daughter told the Post-Standard he was with friends buying cigarettes when he was killed. Yurisandy Jimenez Arrastre described her father — a native of Cuba who lived in the United States for 20 years — as a family man who loved to cook and tell jokes.