Jayson Williams, former Nets star in car crash

According to New York Daily News, former New Jersey Nets NBA star Jayson Williams was involved in a car accident early Tuesday morning.  The crash occurred around 3:15 am in Manhattan on Tuesday when Williams' Mercedes jumped over a curb and hit a tree near Stuyvesant Town.  Sources reported that Williams refused a Breathalyzer test he was asked to take by police.  Police subsequently charged the former NBA star with driving while intoxicated.

The accident resulted in Williams fracturing his neck, but he was not paralyzed according to law enforcement officials.  Williams also suffered several cuts on his face and was transported to Bellevue Hospital. 

Williams was found by police sitting in the passenger side of his car, as if to pretend he was not the driver.  The police noted that Williams had not been wearing a seatbelt when his SUV went off the exit ramp near E. 20th Street and Avenue C from FDR Drive.

Williams has been involved in several other incidents leading up to the DUI arrest.  In April of 2009, he became violent in a Battery Park City hotel room, requiring police to use stun guns and handcuffs to subdue him.  They found suicide notes and empty pill bottles in the room.  In May of 2009, Williams was arrested for punching a man in a bar in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Those charges were later dropped, but Williams is still facing a court case for a manslaughter case from about 8 years ago.  In 2002, Williams alleged that he was playing around with a shotgun when it went off and accidentally killed his driver, Costas (Gus) Christofi.  Williams has already paid Christofi's family $2.75 million as part of a wrongful death lawsuit settlement.

More about Jayson Williams at New York Daily News