A 16-year-old boy was arrested Jan. 15 and charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with a fatal collision that killed a motorcyclist from Corona during the early morning of Friday, Sept. 26, on the Long Island Expressway near Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
The youngster, whose name is being withheld due to his age, was booked at the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills where he was additionally charged with assault and leaving the scene of an accident without reporting. At the time of the fatal collision, the suspect was just 15 years old.
On the morning of the fatal crash, police from the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst responded to a 911 call of a vehicle collision just before 12:45 a.m. on the westbound Long Island Expressway at Exit 22A near 108th Street in Corona. Officers found the motorcyclist on the roadway with severe head trauma. EMS responded to the location and pronounced the 30-year-old man dead at the scene. He was later identified as Luis Mareno, of 97th Street, just north of LeFrak City.
There were two additional vehicles involved in the chain reaction crash. All the drivers, including the 15-year-old, remained at the scene.
Further investigation by the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad determined that the 15-year-old boy was behind the wheel of a black Mitsubishi SUV traveling westbound when he struck the back end of Mareno’s 2020 Triumph RS motorcycle, which was riding in the same direction. Mareno was ejected from the motorcycle and was subsequently struck by a 30-year-old woman driving a 2015 Toyota Sienna. The motorcycle spun across three lanes before striking the driver’s side rear of a 2017 Infiniti Q50, which was stopped and unoccupied along the northwest shoulder of the Long Island Expressway.
The 15-year-old was not taken into custody the day of the fatal collision even though he could not legally drive in New York state. The minimum age to obtain a learner’s permit is 16 years old. There was no adult in the SUV, but there was a 16-year-old in the rear passenger seat. The teen was charged pursuant to an ongoing investigation and he will be arraigned in family court at a later date.
