‘He was going to make a house over there’: NYC car crash victim had plans to join girlfriend, 1-year-old daughter for Dominican Republic getaway
A young Brooklyn dad, after collecting a $70,000 settlement from a three-year-old car accident, planned a Dominican Republic vacation with his girlfriend and their baby daughter — only to die in a freak auto wreck days before his flight.
“His flight was yesterday,” the brother of victim Alexander Ulloa-Toribio told the Daily News on Monday.
Ulloa-Toribio’s childhood sweetheart and their 1-year-old girl were both awaiting his arrival in the Caribbean when he perished in the Nov. 25 collision caused by a blown-out tire, family members said.
Girlfriend Mayelin Rodriguez, who underwent surgery the day before the crash, couldn’t even make it to the 26-year-old man’s funeral in Brooklyn.
“He had a lot of plans,” said sibling Andy Polanco-Toribio, 29. “He was going to make a house over there (in the Dominican Republic), and said he was going to help my mother make a house too.”
Family members, wearing matching memorial T-shirts, were struggling to come to terms Monday with a future without the beloved young dad, who arrived in New York from the Dominican Republic as an 11-year-old boy.
“Everybody loved him,” said mom Juana Toribio, 50, after her son’s burial. “Everybody’s hurt with his death. A lot of people went to the funeral — old people, young people.”
Ulloa-Toribio was driving his Honda Odyssey down Grand St. when a tire blew on a BMW, sending it flying into oncoming traffic.
The BMW plowed into Ulloa-Toribio’s car and another auto, sending the Odyssey careening into a tree just a few blocks from the victim’s home.
Ulloa-Toribio was pronounced dead at Woodhull Hospital. No charges were filed in the 1:10 a.m. wreck.
Family members said the young victim was headed back to his homeland on Sunday to meet with his girlfriend and their little girl Amalia. The couple met while students at Junior High School 50 in Williamsburg and shared an apartment in the neighborhood.
Ulloa-Toribio’s mother was staying with him in Brooklyn and recalled waiting in vain for the construction worker’s safe return.
“I sent him texts saying I was already in the house and asking how long it would take him to get home,” said Juana Toribio.
According to his brother, Ulloa-Toribio had recently received a $70,000 settlement check stemming from a hit-and-run accident three years ago. Ulloa-Toribio was rear-ended by a driver who bolted the scene, but he managed to take down the license plate number of the fleeing truck.
He only received the payout two months ago and began making plans for his trip back to the Caribbean country.
The dead man’s brother was outraged that no criminal charges were filed in the fatal wreck.
“The guy who did it, I think, was driving too fast,” said Andy Polanco-Toribio. “There is a hole in the street. I think he hit it, and I think he lost control. They let him go like nothing happened.”
