One of two young victims who died in tragic back-to-back motorcycle accidents in the Bronx early Sunday was a 13-year-old boy who recently arrived in New York City from Mexico in search of a better life, his cousins told the Daily News on Monday.
Alejandro Rodriguez-Villagomez was riding on the back of a motorcycle in an industrial area of the Bronx near Commerce and Newbold Aves. shortly after midnight Sunday when the driver lost control and hit a tree, throwing both riders off the vehicle and into a concrete wall. Both Rodriguez-Villagomez and the 21-year-old driver, Jothan Alexis Rodriguez-Huerta, were pronounced dead at the scene.
“At the end of the day he was just a kid,” the boy’s cousin, who is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico and did not want to give his name, said to the News.
Rodriguez-Villagomez had only been in the city for “a few months,” according to the cousin.
”He just came from Mexico for a better life,” the cousin said through a translator. “His mom and dad are back in Puebla. They are heartbroken. It’s bad, it’s bad.”
Rodriguez-Villagomez had been staying with two of his cousins in Parkchester since traveling alone to New York City from Mexico. The cousins, both in their 20s, declined to give their names out of fear for their immigration status. It’s unclear if Rodriguez-Villagomez was in the country legally.
Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News
Two people were pronounced dead on scene after a collision on Commerce Avenue and Newbold Avenue in the Bronx on Sunday Aug. 11, 2024. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
Both cousins were devastated over their younger cousin’s loss. “We don’t know what we’re going to do” about a funeral, one cousin told the News. “We’re just hanging in there.”
“It’s terrible. It’s terrible,” the cousin added.
The 21-year-old driver, Rodriguez-Huerta, was a friend of the cousins who stopped by to visit the night of the accident and took the younger boy for a spin on his 2007 Yamaha motorcycle.
“He was a good guy,” the cousin said.
Rodriguez-Huerta lost control going around a curve, causing the motorcycle to hit the tree, with the collision sending both riders flying into a nearby wall, according to police.
The family of Rodriguez-Villagomez has set up a gofundme account to cover the cost of his funeral arrangements.
Just four hours before the accident that took the lives of Rodriguez-Villagomez and Rodriguez-Huerta, who were not related, another young man riding a motorcycle through the Bronx died in a crash. Tramaine Womack, 21, sped through a steady red light on E. 156th St. about 9 p.m. Saturday when he was hit by an SUV, police said. The SUV driver was not facing any immediate charges, according to police.