A passenger inside the Honda Civic that sped through a red light in Manhattan more than a week ago, sparking a chain-reaction crash involving a DOT truck and a taxi, has died at the hospital, police say.
Ryota Funakoshi, 37, of Manhattan, was seated in the front seat of the Civic as the driver, 25-year-old Antonios Sikolas of Yonkers, blew past a red light in Murray Hill in the early morning hours of July 19.
Funakoshi was taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition with head trauma. He was pronounced dead on July 25, police said.
Sikolas had been facing felony vehicle assault and DWI charges. It's not yet clear if he'll face upgraded charges after his passenger's death.
Exclusive surveillance video obtained by News 4 captured the moment the DOT Mack truck T-boned the speeding Civic, then pushed it the length of a football field, stopping only after the tangled vehicles hit a parked taxi.
A 27-year-old man inside the taxi, a Toyota Camry, and the 48-year-old truck driver were taken to NYU Medical Center with minor injuries.
Sikolas was taken to Bellevue in stable condition.
