A 21-year-old NYPD recruit died after his motorcycle struck a guardrail while entering the Van Wyck Expressway ramp from the Jackie Robinson Parkway in Queens early Wednesday morning. The off-duty recruit was riding north on the parkway around 6 a.m. when the crash occurred, police said.
Medics rushed the recruit to Jamaica Hospital, but he could not be saved, according to New York Daily News. Police said the two-wheel vehicle was badly damaged in the collision and appeared to be a motorcycle rather than a scooter or moped. His name had not been immediately released, the outlet reported.
A Notoriously Treacherous Stretch of Queens Roadway
The crash happened at the ramp connecting the parkway to the Van Wyck Expressway, a junction that sits within the sprawling Kew Gardens Interchange. The Jackie Robinson Parkway itself dates back to 1935, when it opened as the Interboro Parkway, and has long been known for sharp, winding curves and narrow lanes that cut through Queens parkland and cemeteries, according to Wikipedia. Those design features, built for an era of slower traffic, prohibit commercial trucks.
The Kew Gardens Interchange, where the parkway meets the Van Wyck Expressway, Grand Central Parkway, and Union Turnpike, just finished a $739 million, multi-phase reconstruction this year. Before the project, the interchange had higher-than-average accident rates and congestion, with nearly 600,000 daily vehicles passing through one of the city's busiest highway junctions, per Transportation Today.
Second Fatal Motorcycle Crash on the Parkway in Weeks
This is not the first deadly motorcycle crash on the Jackie Robinson Parkway this fall. Less than a month earlier, on September 23, a 44-year-old motorcyclist was killed after losing control on a curved section of the parkway near Forest Park and striking a concrete median, Forest Hills Patch reported.
Two-wheeled riders have faced repeated danger near this stretch of Queens highways in recent months. In July, a fatal collision between a scooter and an SUV on the Grand Central Parkway near the Jackie Robinson Parkway exit killed a male rider and critically injured a female passenger, a crash Hoodline covered in its own report at the time.
Motorcyclists make up just 2% of registered vehicles in the city but account for 14% of all traffic deaths, with riders under 35 comprising 56% of those killed, according to Richman Law.
Second Recruit Loss for NYPD in Two Months
Wednesday's fatality marks the second death of an NYPD recruit tied to Queens in recent months. In September, probationary officer Kamir Loubarria died after collapsing during academy training at the College Point Police Academy, a tragedy Hoodline reported in a report at the time. The identity of Wednesday's victim had not been released as of the Daily News report, and it remains unclear what role speed or visibility may have played in the guardrail collision.
