A Long Island man was arrested and charged Tuesday in a fatal collision that killed a Corona e-bike rider on the Honeywell Street bridge in Dutch Kills last year.
Following an eight-month-long probe by the NYPD’s Highway Patrol Collision Investigation Squad, Josh Fitzpatrick, 19, of Sherwood Drive in Huntington, was taken into custody.
The fatal crash occurred during the morning on Oct. 11, 2021, when 32-year-old Thomas Panto was riding an e-bike northbound on the roadway that spans a section of the Sunnyside Rail Yards. Fitzpatrick was behind the wheel of a 2003 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck southbound when he suddenly veered into the northbound lane and crashed into Panto near Northern Boulevard, according to the NYPD.
Officers from the 108th Precinct in Long Island City responded to a 911 call of a motor vehicle collision involving a bicyclist and found the 32-year-old father of two lying in the roadway unconscious and unresponsive with his bike crushed beneath the pickup truck.
EMS transported Panto to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead. Fitzpatrick remained at the scene and was cooperative following the collision. He is now awaiting arraignment on charges of reckless endangerment, failure to obey a traffic device and a speed violation for driving above the posted limit, police said.
This story first appeared on QNS.com.
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