Drunk Driver Arrested After Killing Moped Rider in The Bronx: Cops

A Bronx woman ran over and killed a moped rider on a dangerously designed stretch of Bruckner Boulevard early Saturday morning, and was arrested by cops for drunk driving, police said — a fatal crash that came just one day after another vulnerable road user was killed by a driver also on Bruckner Boulevard a few miles away.

Saturday’s crash was in the Soundview section of The Bronx. Cops say that Frank Davila, 59, was operating his moped on Rosedale Avenue at around 12:20 a.m. and was struck by Stephanie Mendez, 33, as he entered the intersection with the Bruckner Expressway service road. Mendez was piloting her 2005 Volvo eastbound on Bruckner Boulevard at the same time — except with one difference: she was drunk, cops said.

Davila was taken to Jacobi Hospital, where he died. Mendez was charged with driving while intoxicated, but no other vehicular charges such as manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide — though the investigation is continuing.

The corner is dangerously designed, with a speedway-style service road of the Bruckner Expressway intersecting with a roadway that is underneath the same expressway. The last thing Davila likely saw were the pillars of the expressway (see photo above) blocking whatever view he might have had of the driver speeding towards him.

It’s no wonder that since January 2018, there have been 84 crashes at that one intersection alone, injuring three cyclists, five pedestrians and 31 motorists, killing one cyclist. Fifteen of those crashes — including the one cyclist fatality — were this year.

That fatal crash was in September, though when Streetsblog reported on the crash, the victim had apparently survived.

The story also focused on the 40-percent increase in cyclist injuries this year in The Bronx, a public health crisis that is ongoing, according to NYPD statistics (see screenshot of the current numbers below):