By Jessica Cunnington
The man behind the wheel of last weekend’s double fatal crash in the Bronx was allegedly performing donuts and driving at a high rate of speed before striking a parked tanker truck that resulted in the deaths of two passengers.
Police arrested Enrique Lopez on Thursday evening for charges linked to the Jan. 21 crash in Hunts Point. The 23-year-old Far Rockaway man was reportedly driving with three passengers around 3 a.m. when he slammed into a parked, unoccupied oil tanker truck.
The impact of the crash resulted in the deaths of Sabrina Villagomez, 15, and Giovante Roberson, 20, according to charging documents.
Prior to the crash near Bryant and Viele Avenue, Lopez had allegedly been performing “stunts” and doing “donuts” in the Bronx neighborhood “in front of and dangerously close to a large crowd of people,” prosecutors allege. Surveillance video reportedly shows the dangerous driving before the car rotated counterclockwise and slid sideways into the truck.
A 17-year-old passenger riding in the back of the car alongside Villagomez was rushed to Saint Barnabas Hospital in critical condition, police said after the crash. According to new details in the charging documents, the girl has been placed in a medically-induced coma after suffering “sustained fractures to her cervical spine, femur, right arm, and pelvis, as well as a brain bleed, liver damage, and other related injuries.”
Vehicle data recovered after the crash suggests the Chrysler 300 was traveling at least 70 mph in the seconds right before impact, prosecutors claim. The posted speed limit on the road is only 25 mph.
Lopez faces charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault, criminal possession of stolen property, and other charges. He appeared in court on Friday where a judge ordered bail at $150,000.
