Driver charged after Harlem crash kills delivery worker
A Son Turning Ten
A driver in a Hyundai SUV hit two e-bike riders and several vehicles at West 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard on March 19, killing 28-year-old Darly Zacarias; police charged Kevin Crosby with manslaughter and impaired driving.
What We Know
A March 19 crash at West 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard killed a 28-year-old e-bike rider and injured four other people, according to the city crash record. Police and prosecutors said Kevin Crosby drove a red Hyundai Tucson east on West 125th Street at high speed, hit two delivery workers on e-bikes, and continued into several vehicles near the Apollo Theater. News outlets identified the rider who died as Darly Zacarias; some later coverage used different spellings or reversed his name. Police charged Crosby with manslaughter and impaired driving, and prosecutors later brought vehicular-homicide and drug-related charges. Crosby's lawyer argued that steering and brake problems contributed to the crash.
The crash spread across a busy Harlem block
The city crash record places the crash at 8:05 p.m. on March 19 at West 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, with one cyclist killed and four people injured. Police said Kevin Crosby, 49, drove a red Hyundai Tucson east on West 125th Street and hit two e-bike riders from behind near the Apollo Theater.
Press accounts agree that Crosby continued into multiple vehicles after hitting the riders, but they differ on the exact order of the later impacts. Reports describe damage involving an NYPD vehicle, a Lexus with people inside, a Toyota RAV4, and a tractor-trailer.
West 125th Street was crowded near the Apollo Theater
The crash happened on West 125th Street at Frederick Douglass Boulevard, just outside the Apollo Theater. ABC7 described the block between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard as typically packed at 8 p.m. with people, buses, cars and bikes, with bus lanes and speed restrictions in place.
CBS New York quoted Transportation Alternatives calling the West 125th Street corridor one of the city's most dangerous and saying advocates were seeking a protected bike lane there.
Darly Zacarias was delivering food when he died
News outlets identified the rider who died as 28-year-old Darly Zacarias of the Bronx, though some later stories used Darlyn Zacarias, Darly Zacarius, or Zacarias Darly. He was taken to Mount Sinai Morningside, where officials said he died.
ABC7 reported that Zacarias and the other e-bike rider were food delivery workers. The outlet reported that Zacarias had a son who turned 10 the day after the crash. News 12 quoted his uncle Radhames Zacarias in Spanish: "We feel really bad because he will never come back."
Crosby was charged and later indicted
Police charged Kevin Crosby with manslaughter and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Prosecutors said Crosby told officers he had smoked marijuana before driving and PCP earlier in the day.
The New York Post reported that Crosby's lawyer, Seann Riley, argued that mechanical problems with the car's steering and brakes contributed to the crash. West Side Spirit later reported that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced indictment charges including aggravated vehicular homicide, manslaughter, criminal possession of a controlled substance, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs, and reckless driving.
Speed and impairment allegations are central to the case
The official crash record lists illegal drugs as a contributing factor and lists unsafe speed for the Hyundai driver. Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Crosby driving at an extremely high rate of speed in a bus-only lane before hitting the two riders.
Witnesses also described extreme speed. Streetsblog quoted witness Sunny Singh saying, "He was driving faster than on a highway! He was going like a bullet."
Delivery-worker advocates linked the death to street danger
Los Deliveristas Unidos called the death "a devastating reminder of the dangers deliveristas face every day," according to ABC7 and Streetsblog. West Side Spirit reported that a family friend started a fundraiser to help pay funeral costs and bring Zacarias's remains to his home country.