A pregnant 23-year-old and her unborn baby were killed when her allegedly drunk partner crashed at high speed in Staten Island, New York.
Adriana Sylmetaj was thrown from the Dodge Challenger, which was travelling at speeds in excess of 100mph before colliding with a wooden post at around 5am on Sunday morning.
The force of the collision caused the vehicle to break into three parts.
An NYPD spokesperson said that Adriana's boyfriend Adem Nikeziq, 30, had been charged with manslaughter, negligent homicide, reckless endangerment and driving while intoxicated.
The couple, originally from Albania, were travelling south on Hylan Boulevard in New Dorp when Nikeziq lost control and the vehicle hit a barrier wall before spinning out and crashing into a utility pole, police said.
The severity of the impact reportedly caused Adriana to be flung from the car and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Nikeziq was taken to hospital for treatment, where police noticed that he had been drinking, a spokesman added.
The couple's child was due in April, according to a baby registry on BuyBuy Baby.
One online tribute to Adriana referred to Nikeziq as “a shame to the Albanian community”.
“He's going away for the rest of his life and that's still not good enough for that piece of s**t,” one grieving relative of Adriana told the Post outside her home on Sunday.
“They couldn't save the baby,” he said. “We're never going to be okay. None of us. We've experienced a terrible tragedy.”
