EAST GREENBUSH — A 22-year-old man is dead, and a newly minted Rensselaer police officer who is a police chief's son is hospitalized and charged with driving while intoxicated after a car crash before dawn Wednesday that jolted sleeping residents with a boom like "a bolt of lightning going through a tree."

Sean M. Murphy, of Duncan Phyfe Lane, Slingerlands, was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene, town police said. The driver, Mark Fusco, also 22 and son of Rensselaer police Chief Rick Fusco, was charged with driving while intoxicated, authorities said, after the crash that closed Third Avenue Extension for part of the day.

Mark Fusco, who started in August as a Rensselaer police officer, was also cited for speeding and failing to stay in his lane after the 5 a.m. crash that killed Murphy in a mangled black Volkswagen sedan.

Murphy died from "multiple severe blunt force injuries resulting from automobile impact into tree," according to preliminary results of an investigation by Rensselaer County Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Sikirica. The crash occurred between Barracks Road and High Street on Route 151.

"We're investigating it," District Attorney Richard McNally said.

East Greenbush police said they found Fusco behind the wheel when they arrived at the scene.

"All we heard was the impact. If I could kind of put it in perspective, it sounded like a bolt of lightning going through a tree. It was literally that loud, that ferocious," said Michael Smail, who called 911 after the sedan slammed into a tree on his parents' property and came to rest in front of his home.

Smail said he heard no brakes before the explosive sound of the collision woke him up and shook his house. "You thought a meteor had just hit the ground," Smail said, adding that the engine block broke loose on impact and the rest of the car was barely recognizable.

Deputy Rensselaer police Chief Jim Frankoski said he did not know the extent of Fusco's injuries and that his job status has not been addressed yet. Fusco was taken by ambulance from the crash scene to Albany Medical Center Hospital, East Greenbush police said.

Frankoski also said Chief Fusco has no plans to discuss the incident publicly. "At the present time, he's asking that everybody respect his privacy," Frankoski said. "He's treating it as a personal matter."

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