Legendary Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim reportedly involved in fatal car accident
Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick reportedly told a radio station that Boeheim was driving in bad weather when he struck and killed a man who was already outside of his vehicle and involved in a separate crash.
Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim is reportedly facing a lawsuit over the death of a man fatally wounded in a car crash in February 2019.
Jorge Jimenez, 51, died when he was struck by a car Boeheim was driving in upstate New York. The Jimenez family blames Boeheim for the death and alleges that the Syracuse coach was “traveling at a high rate of speed and/or was otherwise negligent in the operation of his vehicle,” TMZ Sports reported Monday.
The family is reportedly seeking unspecified damages.
Boeheim told Esquire in September 2019 it was dark outside when he fatally struck the man whose disabled car was blocking multiple lanes in Onondaga County. He said he didn’t see the car.
“I thought I was going to just go straight into the car, but I got around,” he told the magazine. “I actually made a move – because there was nobody in the road – to get past the car. As I’m going by, the guy steps out.”
Boeheim, who called the police to report the accident, was not charged in the crash. He said he also learned that he saved another person’s life in the entire process.
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“I got a letter from a guy who said I saved his life because he was going too fast and he saw me and slowed down and was able to get off,” he said. “You know that you did everything you could and it just didn’t work and then somebody’s dead and it’s terrible. There’s no way to talk about it or explain about it.”
Boeheim added: “It’s a miserable thing because a man was killed.”
The fatal crash occurred in February and hours after the Orange upset No. 18 Louisville, 69-49, at the Carrier Dome.
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Syracuse has not commented on the suit.
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