Body dragged 32km by New York van

A VAN travelled for nearly an hour through the streets of New York before its driver discovered the horrific cargo it had dragged almost 32km — the partially scraped-away body of a man who was ploughed over by a sports utility vehicle just before he got caught under the van.

Police said the gruesome episode was accidental and they had no plans to charge the drivers at this time.

But that did not diminish the shock of seeing a dead man hooked under a van that had just crossed some of the busiest roads in the city.

Police said the driver, Manuel Lituma Sanchez, had no idea he hit the victim until the end of his trip, when a bystander told him something was dragging under his van.

Police named the victim as a 26-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant recently laid off from a construction job.

A cousin identified the man as Guido Salvador Carabajo-Jara, police said.

His body was found largely intact but horribly battered. The man’s heels were shorn off. His clothes and several layers of skin on his legs and buttocks were worn off. The back of his head was worn through to the scalp.

A business card, Western Union receipt and a broken iPhone were found in the man’s pockets, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

The man was first hit at about 6.15am while apparently crossing against a stop light by the driver of a black Ford Expedition, Gustavo Acosta, who immediately called emergency services. When police arrived, the victim was gone and no damage was found to the SUV.

Lituma Sanchez, who was about two vehicles behind, said he had noticed cars swerving, but didn’t see the initial accident and assumed the drivers were simply avoiding a pothole.

He drove over the victim, who was facing up, and the man’s chest was hooked by a steel plate under the van known as the skid plate, used to protect the transmission and undercarriage.

“I didn’t feel anything, and I didn’t hear anything,” Lituma Sanchez said.

“I didn’t know what happened.”

It’s not clear whether the victim was alive at that point.

Lituma Sanchez stopped shortly after the accident to check his car but noticed nothing and went on his way.

Over 30km later he was flagged down by pedestrian saying something was dragging under his 1998 Chevrolet van.