Fatal NYC victim of suspected DWI holiday horror wreck dreamt she was hit by truck: family
The third fatal victim of a drunk driver who barreled into a July 4 celebration on the Lower East Side was a disabled woman who told her mom she felt safe at the party, her family told The Post Saturday.
Ana Morel, 43, died after accused drunk driver Daniel Hyden, 44, allegedly mowed down 11 people after driving his Ford F-150 through a fence and into a park, cops said.
Morel’s mom, Zoila Henandez, said she tried to get her daughter to leave the party.
“I was going to a party in Poughkeepsie and I told her, ‘Come with me,’ and she said, ‘No mommy, I want to stay here. I feel safe to be here,’” Hernandez said.
“And then she sent me a picture from the party and she said, ‘I’m happy here with my friend, look.’”
Her daughter didn’t work and was on disability because she had brain surgery, the mom said.
She sometimes had trouble getting out of the house.
“Ana was happy,” she said.
“She was fine. She was safe until that guy came and killed people who were there to have a fun time.”
Hyden was ordered held without bail Saturday on vehicular manslaughter charges.
The death was eerie for Morel’s uncle, who said the victim had a predictive dream.
“Ana had a dream just last week that she was struck by a truck,” her uncle, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
“She told her aunt.”
For Hernandez, losing her daughter was a double tragedy.
She lost her other daughter to cancer at age 31 in April 2020, she said.
“It’s a nightmare for me, losing two children like this,” she said.
“It’s the worst thing to happen.”
Ana’s 25-year-old son has been in shock.
“He hasn’t talked,” the grandmother said.
“He hasn’t even cried.”
Hernandez said she found out about the crash from her sister around noon on Friday when she returned to the city and “went crazy” before heading to Bellevue Hospital.
“They sent me to the other side [of the hospital] and I knew something was wrong,” the teary eyed mom said of the hospital.
“Then they were not talking to me and I said, ‘Listen up. Tell me what’s going on.’ “
That’s when she found out her daughter was dead.
Hernandez, who has created a shrine to her daughter in her apartment, said she was planning to go to all of Hyden’s court dates.
“I want to be there,” she said.
“I want to see his face. He took a life, he took my daughter away from me.”
