Truck driver sentenced for leaving fatal BQE crash scene
Carlos Almanzar Toribio was sentenced to 1 1/3 to four years in prison after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of the August 27, 2025, BQE collision, which the city records at 8:45 a.m. and which killed off-duty NYPD Officer Jay Peña, 30.
Location reported in Open Data.
What We Know
Prosecutors said Toribio was driving the box truck involved in the westbound BQE collision with Peña's motorcycle near Atlantic Avenue; police said the driver left the scene. Reports differ about the collision sequence and whether Peña was pronounced dead at the scene or after being taken to a hospital. Toribio pleaded guilty to leaving the scene and was sentenced to prison; prosecutors said he was not charged with causing Peña's death.
Reports describe different sequences
The city record places the collision at 8:45 a.m. on August 27, 2025, on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway ramp and records one death involving a motorcycle and a box truck. Press accounts place it near Atlantic Avenue and give differing times, including about 8:30, 8:50 and 9:15 a.m.
Police told Gothamist that a box-truck driver struck Peña as he rode westbound and left the scene. The Daily News reported that Peña was thrown from his motorcycle, which continued into a wall and caught fire. The Brooklyn Eagle described him as becoming wedged between two box trucks. News 12, reporting prosecutors' account, said Peña was forced beneath Toribio's truck and thrown onto the expressway; it reported that Toribio stopped about 600 feet away, tried to free the motorcycle, drove over it and left. These reports describe differing sequences.
The Brooklyn Home Reporter said Peña was pronounced dead at the scene. Gothamist, the Daily News and News 12 reported that he was taken to NYU Langone Hospital, where he died.
A life rooted in Sunset Park
Peña was a Sunset Park native and resident, a four-year NYPD veteran, and an officer assigned to the 84th Precinct in Downtown Brooklyn.
Glory Martial Arts Center remembered him as a dedicated student, teammate and friend whose energy and kindness affected those he trained with. A childhood acquaintance, Manny Eli, recalled that Peña loved skateboarding. The center's owners organized a fundraiser for his family; reports said he was survived by his parents and brother.
A viewing was held at Clavin Funeral Home in Bay Ridge on September 2, 2025. His funeral Mass followed at Our Lady of Angels Church on September 3, with burial at Green-Wood Cemetery.
A guilty plea for leaving the scene
News 12 reported that Toribio pleaded guilty on April 21 to leaving the scene of an incident involving serious injury or death and was sentenced to 1 1/3 to four years in prison. The Daily News reported that prosecutors said he was not charged in connection with Peña's death.
News 12 also reported that court documents described Toribio replacing and shredding the truck's temporary plate and removing a motorcycle footpeg lodged in the truck's rear tires. Officers reportedly found the plate fragments and footpeg inside the truck.
Where
BROOKLYN QUEENS EXPRESSWAY RAMP