Brian Noll, of Scio, NY, LIE truck driver blames motorcylist victim, Ibis Alex Baez for his road rage death after swerving into ‘reckless’ bike rider and pinning him against a guardrail, killing him.
A 64-year-old truck driver is accused of intentionally killing a motorcyclist during a road rage incident on the Long Island Expressway, (LIE) officials announced Friday.
Brian Noll, of Scio, in western N.Y., was driving a 2022 Ford pickup truck on the South Service Road of the LIE early Friday afternoon when he got into a confrontation with 29-year-old Bronx man, Ibis Alex Baez, riding a 2016 Kawasaki motorcycle, Nassau County police stated in a news release.
Both Noll and the Baez were headed in the same direction, Newsday reported.
Truck driver accused of pinning motorcylist victim against guardrail, killing him
During the confrontation, Noll intentionally swerved into the Kawasaki, pinning the victim against the guardrail, causing severe bodily trauma to the motorcyclist, who was pronounced dead at the scene, investigators said.
The fatal crash occurred just after 2 p.m. in North Hills.
Noll was arrested at the scene and charged with second-degree murder, the nydailynews reported.
A 66-year-old woman in the truck’s passenger seat was not injured, officials said.
Baez’s grieving brother-in-law, Goldwynn Redding, told the nypost on Monday that the victim had ‘a gentle spirit’ and was never the type to start a fight.
‘He never wanted to go out and initiate any kind of confrontation with anybody,’ Redding said of Baez, who was an HVAC installer on Long Island driving to a job at the time.
He added that Baez, who had four sisters and a brother, was a known lover of fishing and would pull over to the side of the road if he saw a good body of water.
Noll’s lawyer has since blamed the road rage death on the motorcyclist.
Truck driver lawyer blames ‘reckless’ motorcyclist
In a statement to News12, the un-identified lawyer accused the motorcyclist of driving ‘in the most reckless of ways’ and ‘took exception to something that my client did in his truck.’
‘He positioned his vehicle, his motorcycle, alongside the truck and then took his hand off the throttle of the motorcycle and attempted to break off the mirror of the truck in a rage,’ the unnamed lawyer said.
‘Thereby causing the truck to lose control while he lost control of the motorcycle because he took his hand [off] the throttle and caused the collision, it was a horrible accident.’
Added the attorney, ‘My client is a 64-year-old grandfather who is entire life working, living, going to church in Long Island is now in retirement, was coming back to see some family because he recently moved upstate when this motorcyclist was wreaking havoc on the roads and caused this accident.’
Noll was arraigned Saturday morning in Nassau County District Court, online records show. He pleaded not guilty, and his bail was set at $300,000.
A Gofundme fundraiser for burial costs for Ibis Alex Baes as of Monday evening had raised $7,473 of a $20K goal.
