High Speed deemed Cause of Bruckner Horror

High Speed deemed Cause of Bruckner Horror

Brooklyn Man Dies in Fatal Highway Plunge

 

By David Greene

BRONX, NEW YORK, JUNE 24- A Brooklyn man has died after his out-of-control vehicle jumped a curb, crashed through a metal barrier and chain-link fence --and plummeted more than 20 feet to his death.

Authorities were called to East Tremont Avenue and the Bruckner Boulevard Service Road at 10:50 p.m. on June 20.

Rescue crews shutdown both directions of the busy highway as the victim was extricated from the mangled 2012 Chevrolet Cruz.

One source stated that paramedics were performing CPR on the victim as he was transported to Jacobi Hospital. However, the man was pronounced dead upon arrival to the hospital.

The police would later identify him as 26-year-old Jean Espinosa-Villacis of Argyle Road in Brooklyn.

According to one police source, "The victim was traveling northbound on the Bruckner Boulevard Service Road at a high rate of speed, attempted to make a left turn onto East Tremont Avenue when the operator lost control."

Officials say Villacis fell 23 feet into the northbound lane of the highway and approaching vehicles were able to stop in time and no other vehicles were involved.

William Rivera, the founder of the Cross Bronx Expressway Imitative (CBI), who has helped identify several area roadways where drivers are in danger of being sent airborne, stated that the latest site was not on his list.

The CBI identified the section of the Bronx River Parkway at the Bronx Zoo as a hazard before 7 family members were killed in a horrific crash in April 2012. That section of roadway has recently undergone renovation.

Rivera added, "Maybe I should drive around again because cars are flying all over the place."   

(The broken chain-link fence dangles precariously over the Bruckner Expressway.--Photo by Aryana Nicole Bella)