By Christina Santucci
Two fathers lost their lives in an early morning motorcycle crash on the “Boulevard of Death” Sunday, police and loved ones said.
Sunnyside resident Claudio Huerta, 50, was attempting to cross the roadway at 44th Street — about four blocks from where he lived — when he was mowed down by a 2001 Kawasaki at about 4 a.m., the NYPD said.
When emergency responders arrived, they pronounced Huerta dead at the scene and the motorcyclist, identified by police as 33-year-old Carlos Carrasco, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he was listed initially in critical condition, police said.
Carrasco died at about 6 a.m. Tuesday, two days after the accident, police and his family said.
His brother, Richard Perez, described Carrasco as a devoted father.
“He really loved his daughter,” Perez said of his 5-year-old niece, Jayden.
A 10-year resident of southeast Queens, Perez had been an avid motorcycle enthusiast, his brother said, and grief-stricken relatives were still planning his funeral arrangements.
Neighbors said Huerta lived in his first-floor Sunnyside apartment with a brother and sister and worked seven days a week. A woman who lived across the hall said his children lived in Huerta’s homeland of Ecuador.
Other residents said they only knew him in passing.
“I’ve been here 52 years. They’ve been there a while,” a neighborhood said about the roommates.
Reach managing editor Christina Santucci by e-mail at timesledgerphotos@gmail.com or by phone at 718-260-4589.
