QUEENS — A motorcycle passenger was critically injured in Astoria Wednesday night when the bike he was on skidded into the path of a turning car, police said.
Zhylijen Cacurri, 24, was driving a 2013 Honda motorcycle west on 28th Avenue about 7:15 p.m. with a 29-year-year old passenger on the bike behind him when a 2003 Infiniti cut in front of him while making a left turn from 34th Street, police said.
Cacurri hit the brakes in a bid to prevent a crash, but hit the front of the car anyway, sending both bikers flying, an NYPD spokesman said.
Cacurri and his passenger, whose name was not released, were taken to Elmhurst Hospital with critical injuries, police said. Cacurri was issued a summons for driving without a license, a police spokesman said.
The Infiniti's driver, 26-year-old Derek Ayala — who has 13 prior arrests including four times for driving while intoxicated, most recently in March 2013 — was arrested at the scene for driving without interlock, a car-based breathalyzer that controls the vehicle ignition and is mandatory in New York for anyone convicted of driving drunk, police said.
He was not believed to be drunk at the time of the crash, police said.
Ayala was wearing a Coors Light T-shirt at the time of the crash, according to photos taken at the scene. His lawyer's information was not immediately available.