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Fiery crash on Robinson leaves four people dead

By Tien-Shun Lee

A young Woodside mother and three friends in their 20s died in a fiery crash on the Jackie Robinson Parkway at Metropolitan Avenue shortly after midnight Monday when the speeding car they were in spun out of control and slammed into a tree.

Mayra Del Rosario, 23, of Woodside; Alilexis Guzman, 28, of Brooklyn; Diony Richiez, 20, of Freeport, L.I., and a fourth person whose name was not released, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Two others in the car, Engels Caro, 24, and Lenny Castro, 23, were seriously injured and taken to Jamaica Hospital, where they were listed in critical but stable condition in the Intensive Care Unit Tuesday.

Police were unclear as to who out of the six was the driver of the car.

Just before the crash Richiez and Castro, half brothers, made a cell phone call to a woman friend in Rosedale, according to published reports.

Yulanda Thompson, 23, of Rosedale, told the Daily News that Richiez told her “these people are drinking and going crazy.”

The call ended abruptly when the car crashed. Authorities said the green Toyota Camry was traveling westbound at close to 100 mph when the driver lost control. The car hit the center median, rammed into a tree and burst into flames.

Police were investigating whether alcohol played a role in the accident.

“They were probably coming home from a party in Brooklyn,” said Hilda Salce, 21, who lived with her sister-in-law, Del Rosario, Del Rosario's 4-year-old daughter and other family members in their home in Woodside.

Salce said Del Rosario had been picked up from home by a male friend at around 3 p.m. Sunday. The two planned to travel to Brooklyn to collect Guzman, a friend Del Rosario used to work with at the 21st Century Optical lens factory in Long Island City.

“They were going to go out to a restaurant and to a party or a nightclub or something – that's what they usually do,” said Salce.

Salce said her sister-in-law and Guzman rarely stayed out late on Sundays because they were both single mothers and had to go to work early Monday. The two women were born in the Dominican Republic.

“She would always call just to check on her daughter, so when my mother saw it was three in the morning and she wasn't home, she was worried because she would always call,” said Salce.

Before her death, Del Rosario worked as a bus matron, picking up children from their school buses, said Salce. Prior to that job, she had worked with Guzman and Salce in the inventory department of 21st Century Optical for about three years.

“She was a bit of a card, a real character with a great personality,” Anthony Fulco, the company's director of sales and marketing, said of Del Rosario.

Del Rosario and Guzman were both gregarious women with lots of friends, said Fulco. Guzman was always smiling and made it a point to say goodnight to everybody when she left work. She was the mother of a 5-year-old son and had worked at the lens factory about four years before her death.

“They were fun people who were learning the language and the culture and working here. They were young lives that were snuffed out in their prime,” said Fulco. “Alilexis you would see every single day – you'd come in, she'd punch in.

“All of a sudden she's gone, and now that she's gone, there's mourning in the entire facility. The atmosphere here is that people are mourning and miss her terribly.”

Family members of Richiez in Long Island would not comment about the crash.

Viewing and services for Del Rosario were planned for 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Rivera Funeral Home in Corona and for Guzman from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday at John's Funeral Home on Liberty Avenue in Brooklyn.

Reach reporter Tien-Shun Lee by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com, or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.