Police are investigating two separate, deadly motorcycle crashes in Queens that occurred just a few hours apart on Sunday night and early the following morning.
Law enforcement sources said the first deadly encounter occurred at 8:56 p.m. on Aug. 5 at the corner of 162nd Avenue and Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach.
According to authorities, two men, ages 33 and 28, were riding a 2017 red Jiang motorcycle southbound on Cross Bay Boulevard when the vehicle struck the rear passenger’s side door of a 2007 BMW as that vehicle attempted to turn left from the northbound boulevard lanes to 162nd Street westbound.
Upon striking the BMW, police said, both individuals on the motorcycle were thrown off their ride and struck the roadway. The BMW, operated by a 19-year-old woman with two female passengers inside, remained at the scene.
Officers from the 106th Precinct and EMS responded to the accident. Paramedics rushed both injured motorcyclists to Jamaica Hospital; the 33-year-old man — identified as Elvin Veras-Polanco of Brooklyn, who operated the motorcycle — was pronounced dead, while the 28-year-old man was listed in critical condition.
Meanwhile, the three women inside the BMW were also taken to Jamaica Hospital for treatment of minor injuries. No charges have been filed.
The second crash occurred in Bayside just after midnight on Aug. 6 along the Cross Island Parkway near Northern Boulevard.
At about 12:19 a.m., police said, a 36-year-old man was riding a 2006 Honda Motorcycle northbound on the parkway at a high rate of speed. The motorcyclist suddenly lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a center dividing wall, causing the man to be hurtled from the vehicle and over the barrier into the parkway’s southbound lanes.
Seconds later, authorities said, the unconscious man was struck by a 2013 Bentley operated traveling in the left lane southbound on the Cross Island Parkway. The Bentley’s driver — Jevaughn Hodge, 33, of Hempstead, Long Island — stopped her car and remained at the scene.
Officers from the 111th Precinct and the NYPD Highway Patrol responded to the scene along with EMS units; the motorcyclist, who suffered severe body trauma, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police withheld his identity pending family notification.
Following an preliminary probe, members of the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad took Hodge into custody on a charge of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
Investigations into both crashes are ongoing, police said.
