A 23-year old Queens Village man and his school pal were killed in a gruesome crash on a rain-slicked avenue in Jamaica recently, when he lost control of his car at a bend in the road.
Police say that Christopher Boyd of 92-66 Springfield Boulevard was driving eastbound on Hillside Avenue after a Saturday night party, accompanied by 25-year-old Navy veteran Eric Richmond of 90-03 220th Street in Queens Village.
At about 4:15 a.m. on Sunday, January 6, Boyd’s 1992 Ford Mustang skidded sideways from the right, smashing into an oncoming MTA bus traveling westbound. The force of the collision left the car totally destroyed, and the two men were pronounced dead when Emergency Medical Service personnel arrived at the scene.
To make matters even more tragic, Richmond’s sister Alycia and Boyd’s girlfriend of five years were traveling in a car just behind them, and witnessed the horrific crash.
According to published reports, Shavaughn Blount, 19 insisted that her boyfriend was not speeding when he pulled in front of the car she was riding in. Blount told cops that Boyd had pulled in front to signal them to stop for food when, “his back tires slid in the rain.”
At his Queens Village home, Richmond’s father, also named Eric, said his son “lit up the room,” and that his daughter was “should have been in the car with him.”
He said his son had attended the birthday of a family friend and had stopped for White Castle on the way home.
When he got word of the accident, he knew immediately that his son had died and worried about his daughter. “Maybe she is also dead,” he thought.
The elder Richmond, a nurse, said his son, “went out to defend America … to protect the world and save America,” and said he signed up for a four-year enlistment in the Navy at 18 because of 9/11.
Richmond and his wife, both immigrants, said that their son “was a true American.”
“He was hamburgers, French fries, steak and macaroni and cheese,” Richmond’s father said.
The Richmond family said that a service would be held on Monday, January 13, at the Good Times Gospel Chapel in Brooklyn. The chapel confirmed that the funeral service would be at 6 p.m. following the viewing, which would begin at 3 p.m. Richmond’s father said Boyd’s family, who has ties to the state of Maine, is planning a separate service for him.
Boyd was a graduate of Queensborough Community College and had recently been hired by Time Warner Cable, according to his mother, Tara Anders, 42. “God has given me the strength to get through this,” she said in a published report.
The pair had attended the same elementary and middle schools and had been fast friends, sleeping over at each other’s homes as children. “They were dedicated friends,” the senior Richmond said. “[Boyd] would come here and wear my son’s clothes, wear his shoes.”
According to cops, the Nassau County bus was carrying eight passengers. The bus driver and one passenger were taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica in stable condition. No charges were contemplated against the driver, police said.
- With additional reporting by Christina Santucci
