A motorcyclist was killed in a car crash Monday morning on Long Island in a wreck with a drunk driver, according to police.
The unnamed biker hit a vehicle on the Long Island Expressway in Islandia near Exit 57, News 12 Long Island reported.
Both vehicles were traveling west around 1:15 a.m. at the time of the crash, cops said.
The vehicle driver, 67-year-old Alan Mercado, was arrested and charged with driving while ability impaired, according to Patch. A vehicle passenger was hospitalized with unspecified injuries. Mercado’s arraignment was scheduled for Tuesday.
That incident was just one of two deadly crashes involving a motorcycle on the Long Island Expressway within 12 hours. About 15 miles east in Yaphank, another biker struck a vehicle near Exit 68, police said.
Frederick Fischer was driving the bike when he struck the back of a Lexus SUV that had slowed down due to traffic, News 12 reported. The Lexus then continued forward into an Audi SUV also in the traffic jam, cops said.
Dawn Jimenez-Salta, a passenger on the back of the motorcycle, was killed in the crash, and Fischer was hospitalized, according to News 12. No other serious injuries were reported, and no one was charged with a crime for the Yaphank wreck.
Driving while ability impaired, or DWAI, is the same charge Justin Timberlake pleaded guilty to when cutting a plea deal for his own drunk driving arrest on Long Island.
