A Ozone Park man was struck and killed by the driver of a tractor-trailer as he rode a motorcycle on the Long Island Expressway in Maspeth on Saturday morning.
Police from the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood responded to a 911 call of a vehicle collision near the Brooklyn Queens Expressway just after 8:30 a.m. and found the motorcycle rider on the roadway with severe trauma to his torso and right thigh. The victim was rushed by EMS to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short while later.
The deceased was identified as Gregory Benning, 24, of 92nd Street in Ozone Park. Further investigation by the NYPD’s Highway District Collision Investigation Squad determined that a 34-year-old man was behind the wheel of a 2021 Isuzu rig traveling in the right lane of the westbound LIE at 63rd Street when he disobeyed the pavement markings at the location and traveled to the right of it.
When the tractor-trailer crossed over the markings and entered the left exit lane of the westbound Brooklyn Queens Expressway, it struck Benning, who was riding a red 2022 R6 Yamaha motorcycle. Benning crashed into the passenger side of the truck and was thrown from the bike.
The operator of the tractor-trailer remained at the scene and was not arrested but the investigation by the NYPD’s Highway Collision Investigation Squad remains ongoing.
Benning leaves behind a grieving family that has lived in the same Ozone Park home since the 1920s. He started his own business at the age of 15 which evolved into a mobile bike repair service he called “BikeRescueNYC” by the time he was 22 years old, according to his family.
Benning would repair bikes for kids and the elderly in the community free of charge.
The Ozone Park Residents Block Association launched a GoFundMe account to help the family with the cost of his funeral.
