EXCLUSIVE: Family demands answers after Queens highway bump leads to motorcyclist's death

Josh Einiger Image
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Highway bump blamed for motorcyclist's death
Josh Einiger spoke exclusively with family and friends of a motorcyclist killed on the Grand Central Parkway.

FRESH MEADOWS (WABC) -- Grieving family and friends are angry and speaking out about a massive bump on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, which they say killed a 33-year old man on his motorcycle.



On the darkened highway, it sneaks up out of nowhere: what amounts to a speed bump in the left lane.



Imagine hitting it on only two wheels.



"When I went over the bump my hand hit the throttle, the bike started shaking so I managed to take control of it again," said Marvin Centano.



Last Friday, Centano was just ahead of his old friend Adelso 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.


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