Try this
A 'warning' failure in road rage incident
BY CHRISTINE ARMARIO
STAFF WRITER
September 26, 2005
A night before a driver pinned Igor Kruk's motorcycle to the back of a sport utility vehicle with his car, killing Kruk in what police are calling a fit of road rage, Kruk had a dream his bike was in pieces on the ground and that he was unable to put it together, his family said yesterday.
The dream was telling him to be careful, Kruk told his friends, and so he did not hesitate to go out on his 2004 Yamaha with a friend later Saturday afternoon. Kruk and his friend Victor Fras were headed east on Front Street when they were passed by a brown Honda Accord. Later, police said, they passed it in turn.
That sent the driver of the car, Patrick DeJean, 41, of Uniondale, into a flurry of road rage, police said. He chased the two motorcycles through the streets of Uniondale with witness reports of speeds going up to 70 mph, until DeJean hit the rear of Kruk's bike on Marvin Avenue, dragging him 150 feet until he was pinned to a parked Kia Sportage, police said.
Kruk's bike exploded into pieces, killing him on impact. DeJean got out of the car, his clothes covered in glass, and tried to run away, according to police. Kruk's friend Fras and several witnesses chased him about a quarter of a mile until they caught him and police arrived.
Kruk, 24, a Polish immigrant, lived with his mother in Uniondale, waking up at 6 a.m. each day to work as a house painter, and polishing and upgrading his motorcycle on the weekend.
This wasn't the first time DeJean hit someone with his car, police said. Four years before, in July 2001, DeJean ran over his then-girlfriend, Michelle Bond, with a car after she refused to lend him money, police said. He pleaded guilty to the charge. Police said he served jail time, but records were unavailable last night.
After the 2001 case, DeJean surrendered his New York driver's license but got a new one in Pennsylvania, police said. Yesterday, as police escorted him to his arraignment at First District Court in Hempstead on charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident, he had few words.
"I'm sorry," said DeJean, in blue hospital pants and a white and blue gown. "I had an accident."
Relatives of DeJean said police incorrectly described the 2001 charges. Ralph DuVal, his younger brother, said Bond stepped in front of the car after DeJean caught her standing outside in another man's embrace and started to drive away. They said DeJean is also a motorcycle driver and described him as a soft-tempered father of three children who works as an accountant.
Bond could not be reached for comment.
"People who drive cars tend to dislike guys on the motorcycles to go past them," DuVal said outside his home. "But he rides also. That wouldn't occur."
In court, though, Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Bob Biancavilla described cars as DeJean's "weapon of choice." He was ordered held without bail on the current charges.
"This, pure and simple, is a case of road rage," said Det. Sgt. Dennis Barry of the Nassau Homicide Squad. "The scene looked like a war zone."
Shortly after the 4:14 p.m. crash Saturday, one of Kruk's friends showed up at his house and told his mother, Irena Kruk, there had been an accident. She said she rushed to the scene, where she saw a crumpled motorcycle and a crowd of police.
"Is my son still alive?" she asked one of the officers. They took her aside and apologized for the loss, she said, advising her not to look at what was left of her son's badly burned body.
"No body," Irena Kruk said yesterday, her face turning red and her blue eyes filling with tears.
Irena Kruk said her son was going to return today to Poland to visit with his father, who was going to give him some of his farmland in eastern Poland. He worked as a painter, she said, and had dreams of opening his own business. He had been riding different types of scooters and motorcycles since he was 11 years old, she said, calling the Yamaha bike "his girlfriend."
"Sleep more, you're young," she said she would often tell her hard-working son. "You see how it's a beautiful day," he would respond before heading out.
"Now he go to sleep," she said, tears dripping from her eyes at the recollection. "He won't see nothing."
<!--EDIT|DAB
Reason for Edit: None given...|1127744041 -->
