Staten Islander gets 2 to 6 years for drunk crash on Gowanus Expressway that kills friend

A drunk BMW driver will spend two to six years behind bars for killing his friend in a dramatic crash on the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn.

Mark Doohan, 32, of Staten Island, learned of his fate from Supreme Court Justice Jane Tully in Brooklyn Superior Court on Tuesday morning, nearly two years after the crash that claimed the life of 30-year-old Karen Diaz.

“Karen died under terrible circumstances. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy,” her younger brother Kevin Saldarreaga said in a written statement from the victim. “The day he took my sister’s life was the day a part of me died too. I realized that this is the part you can’t fill in.”

In a statement read in court by Assistant District Attorney Edward Kerins, Saldarreaga recalled the day Doohan and Diaz met while the siblings were on a Caribbean cruise. Diaz was 22, her brother was 16, the two of them made their way to the club.

“Karen met Mark at a bar and found out that he was from Staten Island, and I think that was the only thing they had in common,” recalled her brother. “After my sister stopped talking to him, he became aggressive and refused to leave her alone,” he said.

Saldarreaga intervened and they fought, ready to fight, until Doohan realized he was only 16 years old.

“That night will forever remain in my memory as the night when I protected my sister, and now, nine years later, I am again protecting my sister from the same criminal who took my sister’s life,” he said. “He obviously never changed, and why couldn’t he have learned his lesson the first time and left my sister alone?”

Doohan had a blood level of 0.12% and was traveling at 75 mph when he crashed into the back of a tractor trailer in Bay Ridge at approximately 1:15 a.m. on March 10, 2021, prosecutors said.

The truck stopped in traffic near the Verrazano Bridge and Doohan applied the brakes just half a second before impact.

The accident killed Diaz, who was described as a cheerful music lover who radiated positive energy.

Doohan admitted to drinking four or five vodkas in Manhattan before the crash, but initially denied driving a BMW 535i, prosecutors said. He placed the blame on “an unidentified woman” who fled after the accident.

On December 13, he admitted to being the driver and pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter.

“This defendant’s reckless decision to drive after drinking has cost the life of an innocent woman and endangered many others,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Tuesday. “He is currently being held accountable for his criminal behavior.”