Alleged drunk husband charged after wife fatally falls out of car in New York

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- A 29-year-old woman died in a freak accident when she fell out of a moving car after apparently getting into a fight with her husband, who was taken into custody.

He was driving a 2002 GMC Envoy and turning onto Bay Ridge Parkway at Fifth Avenue when the vehicle's rear door suddenly opened just after 11:30 p.m. Thursday. The woman, identified as Danielle Arronsen, of Brooklyn, who was sitting in the back seat, fell out of the vehicle, striking her head on the ground. She was rushed to Lutheran Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

The husband, Andrew Berkowitz, 35, has been charged with manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of an accident, driving while intoxicated, reckless driving and driving while ability impaired.

Detectives went to a nearby bar, the Bean Post Pub on Fifth Avenue, where witnesses told them the two had been fighting. The woman is believed to have been distracted by the fight and did not close the rear door fully when she left the bar and got into the vehicle.

The investigation closed a stretch of busy Bay Ridge Parkway.