By Patrick Wall and Tom Liddy
DNAinfo
MANHATTAN — A motorcyclist was killed after he was struck twice on the West Side Highway in Midtown early Saturday morning - first by a motorist who fled and then by a drunk driver, police said.
Kastriot Prelaj, 22, of New Rochelle, was stopped at a red light on 12th Avenue at West 46th Street, at 4:23 a.m.
When the light turned green, he was struck by a white Honda that fled, police said.
After that, Prelaj was hit by a 1995 Chevy that remained on the scene. However, the driver, Eliyyas Northern, 22, of Spring Valley, NY, was arrested for drunk driving, police said.
Prelaj suffered severe trauma to the body and was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A worker at a nearby carwash, who did not want to be named, said that the crash was caught on surveillance tape.
In the video, which has been turned over to police, the worker said that the motorcyclist can be seen pulling into the crosswalk.
When the light turned green, the bike did not move and its lights began flashing.
"He had a problem with his motorcyle," the worker said.
At that point, the first car smashed into the motorcycle, sending a passenger flying. The 21-year-old man suffered a broken leg in the accident and was in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital, police said.
After that, the second car hit the bike and ran over Prelaj, the car wash worker said.
"It looked bad," he said.
One officer patrolling the scene in the hours after the crash said that the site was a problem area.
“The West Side Highway at that time of the morning, people just fly down here coming out of the clubs," she said.
