Pablo Polanco, 29, was riding north on the Henry Hudson Parkway Thursday afternoon, heading to meet a friend, when he lost control and struck the center median, according to police. He died at the scene from severe head trauma, despite wearing a helmet. The Inwood resident had bought the motorcycle just days earlier, after his previous bike was stolen.
Polanco was heading to meet 19-year-old friend Elisa Quezata at around 4 p.m. Thursday when the crash occurred, as reported by the New York Daily News. Quezata said she was waiting for him at a park and could not reach him by phone; it was Polanco's mother who eventually told her the news. She described him as a good person whom she loved and misses, and said he was super cautious and protective of himself while riding.
Polanco had owned a 2019 Yamaha motorcycle that he used to get around the city, working as a skating-rink manager and security guard. He had gotten that bike about two weeks earlier, but it was stolen. He bought another motorcycle roughly a week before the fatal crash, replacing the one that had been taken. The day before he died, he updated his Facebook profile picture to an image of his motorcycle with a helmet resting on its backseat.
A Neighbor's Warning and a Grim Omen
Jason Marrero, 56, who lived in Polanco's building, had warned him to be safe on his motorcycle. Marrero had his own motorcycle accident about eight years earlier and said he stopped riding after it happened. He told the newspaper he believed the theft of Polanco's original motorcycle was a bad sign, calling it an omen.
Polanco had moved into his Inwood apartment about six months before the crash. The NYPD Collision Investigation Squad is investigating the crash, though no findings have been made public.
A Pattern of Fatal Crashes on the Same Parkway
Polanco's death adds to a string of fatal motorcycle crashes on the Henry Hudson Parkway over the years. In 2014, a 44-year-old motorcyclist died near West 72nd Street after being thrown from his bike and struck by a car, according to the New York Daily News, which reported that witnesses told police the rider lost control and hit the center median before being struck. That same year, Bronx resident Miguel Mercado died after his motorcycle hit the median and threw him into the opposite lane, where he was struck by a minivan, per DNAinfo; Mercado was also wearing a helmet.
Other crashes on the parkway have involved multiple vehicles. CBS New York reported that a 42-year-old motorcyclist was killed after a gray BMW struck him from behind, throwing him from his bike before a Mercedes hit him — both cars fled the scene, according to CBS New York. In another case near West 120th Street, 58-year-old Sean Stanton died on May 3 after his northbound motorcycle struck the rear-left bumper of a Lexus SUV; police had responded to that collision at 8:35 a.m. on April 19, according to amny.com. A separate crash near 139th Street killed a 36-year-old rider who was traveling south with a female passenger when his motorcycle collided with a minivan and he was then struck by an oncoming SUV; the passenger survived with minor injuries, amny.com reported.
What the City's Safety Data Shows
Citywide, motorcycles make up a small slice of traffic but a disproportionate share of risk. A New York City Motorcycle Safety Study notes that motorcycles represent two percent of registered motor vehicles in the city, while motorcyclist fatalities have not decreased at the same rate as fatalities for other modes, according to the study. A separate New York City Department of Transportation driver behavior study found that fatalities on motorized two-wheelers — a category it defines to include e-bikes, scooters, mopeds, offroaders and motorcycles — rose 95% between 2018-19 and 2020-21, compared with a 64% rise in motor-vehicle fatalities overall during the same period.
No findings from the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad's inquiry into Polanco's crash have been released, and the circumstances that led him to lose control remain under investigation.
