The family of a man who died after having drinks at a bar in Jersey City and then driving his car into the Morris Canal Basin agreed to a $1.75 million settlement in a Middlesex County case, Pych v. Powerhouse Lounge, on May 10.

Mark Pych, 22, met friends for drinks at Powerhouse Lounge at a New Year’s party in the early hours of January 1, 2014, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Nicholas Leonardis of Stathis & Leonardis in Edison. Pych left the bar at 3 a.m., then drove his car south along Marin Boulevard, to a point where the street becomes a private roadway on the site of the New York Waterway ferry service. The roadway continued to the edge of the water, and with no barriers at the water’s edge, Pych’s vehicle plunged into the water and sank. Unable to escape the car, he drowned. An autopsy showed Pych’s blood-alcohol concentration was .20, more than twice the the legal limit of .08, according to Leonardis.