Crews repair dangerous bump on Grand Central Parkway in Queens

JAMAICA HILLS (WABC) -- A stretch of the Grand Central Parkway in Queens has been repaired after Eyewitness News raised a red flag.

A motorcyclist died last week after hitting a major bump, throwing him from his bike and into the path of an SUV.

A family member of the biker posted a picture on Instagram of the now-repaired piece of road near 166th Street in Jamaica Hills, and thanked us for our reports that drew attention to the problem.

State transportation officials had previously said there was no immediate plan to fix the stretch of the roadway.

33-year old Adelso Espinal fell off his bike and was run over by an SUV July 24.

The State Department of Transportation says that section of the Grand Central Parkway was paved in 2009, and after the harsh winter, NYSDOT also performed pavement repairs this past March at the same spot.

Further repairs are planned, but there is no timetable for when.

Friends and family of Espinal are angry and demanding answers after the man's death.

Last Friday, Marvin Centano was just ahead of his old friend, Espinal. The two were riding on the Grand Central near 166th Street.

When he looked behind him after regaining control, he saw Espinal also lost control on that bump, but he went down.

And as his friend watched helplessly, an SUV plowed right into him.

"Oh it's hard bro to see somebody that you love pass away in front of your eyes. It's hard. It's real hard," he said.

"It's a tragedy that what happened on the Grand Central Parkway happened to my family. We've been through so much," said the victim's brother, Deny Espinal.

Tuesday night, family and friends laid Espinal to rest, filled with grief and anger that a high speed road could be in such disrepair.

In fact, the fire department confirms it responded to another motorcycle crash in the same spot just Monday night.

And in a wild coincidence, Adelso's brother in law Steven Berry happened to be driving by and helped the biker off the road.

"The first thing that he said when we got to him was I hit a bump, I hit a bump," said Berry.

He says he can't be sure it was the same bump, after all there are plenty of them on the Grand Central.

But Adelso's family wonders how many more bikers will get hurt at that spot after all. No one has fixed it yet, three days after Adelso died.

"It was the road. He hit a bump. A bump that took his bike out of control And if they don't take care of this you're gonna have more people who have problems with this and they're gonna die," said Berry.