‘He was a good kid’: Teen bicyclist brain dead after being struck by Queens hit-and-run rental car driver
The dreams of a hard-working teenage immigrant were dashed on a Queens street when a hit-and-run driver hit him head on and kept going.
Darwin Durazno, 16, was still on life support days after the June 4 crash — but only so doctors could harvest and donate organs, said the boy’s stepfather on Thursday.
“The doctor said that the organs could save eight lives. My son can’t make it but he can save eight lives. The organs are in perfect condition because he is a young kid,” said Jose Bernal.
Darwin was biking south on College Point Blvd. near 18th Ave. about 9:30 p.m. when a northbound Toyota Camry trying to overtake another car crossed the double yellow lines and crashed into the teen head on, cops said.
“I heard two sounds, a boom and a boom,” said a nearby store owner. “I looked outside and there he was. His bike was down there. It was split in half, two pieces.”
A man who works at a nearby bodega said he saw the car speeding back and forth along the boulevard before he heard the collision.
“It just happened quick,” said the worker, who gave his name as Sami. “It came by, and you just heard a loud boom and he just kept driving. You see him on the ground, everyone gathering around him.
“Then the fire department came and started doing CPR trying to get him back. He was twitching but when they put him in the back he stopped moving.”
The Camry driver kept going after the 9:30 p.m. crash and turned right onto 15th Ave. Police found the ditched Enterprise Rent-A-Car vehicle several blocks away near 120th St.
Sami, 20, also saw the car after the crash. “The car was totally wrecked, the windshield and the roof were caved in,” he said.
Bernal said doctors declared Darwin brain dead after his injuries affected the flow of oxygen to the victim’s brain.
Darwin had just moved to the states from Ecuador three years ago and was enjoying and embracing the American dream. He was already obsessed with his part-time job at an auto-body shop where he detailed and washed cars, said his stepfather.
“He wanted a Ferrari and so that’s all he wanted to do was work,” Bernal, 42, said. “He was detailing and knew all about the cars but we told him to finish high school first.
“He was a good kid. He said he wanted to work to buy a house for his mother and father.”
Darwin was on his way to a barbershop the night of his death, Bernal said.
“He was going to get his haircut,” the stepfather said. “There is a barbershop that was open late that he was going to. He was at the age where he wanted the nice things. He wanted nice shoes, and wanted to work.”
The family’s hopes and dreams were shattered in an instant by a reckless driver.
“His parents came here 10 years ago,” Bernal said. “They wanted to do everything legal, to bring him here. A lot of hopes and dreams went into this, and now it won’t happen.”
