Brooklyn motorcycle crash victim was going to be a new dad, family says (EXCLUSIVE)

Brooklyn motorcycle crash victim was going to be a new dad, family says (EXCLUSIVE)

A young Brooklyn man killed outside Fort Hamilton was a passionate motorcyclist who had recently found out he was going to be a new father, his distraught family told the Daily News on Sunday.

Jason Gans, 21, died after he slammed into the back of an SUV making a U-turn outside the U.S. Army base on Friday, police said.

Gans had been thrilled to learn that his girlfriend was several weeks pregnant, posting the news on Instagram, according to his mother, Rachel Rivera.

“He was happy. He thought he was gonna have a little biker kid!” she said at their home in Bergen Beach. “And I’m like, ‘He’s not getting on a bike, no.’ ”

Gans lived and breathed motorcycles since he was a little boy and loved to switch out the parts and work on the engines, said his friends and family members who gathered at his home.

“He loved the bikes,” said Rivera, 44. “He’s been doing it for a long time, and he was really good at it. … It was his skill. He could ride a bike like no one else.

“This is my worst fear,” she added, in tears.

Little brother Gabriel Gans swore he will never ride a motorcycle again.

“I’m done riding. I will never step foot on a bike again,” the 20-year-old sibling said.

Jason Gans on the bike he rode when the accident happened.

Jason’s friend Christopher Cotter, also 20, made the same vow.

“I do bike, but I don’t want to hop on a bike ever again,” Cotter said. “He taught me how to ride a bike. He taught me everything.”

Jason Gans died doing what he loved, he added.

“That kid rode bikes every day. It would be 20 degrees outside. It would be raining, snowing,” Cotter said. “We would always catch him on the bike.”

The father-to-be was working on getting his GED and was focused on finishing school.

“He took his smarts and he put it on learning how to be really good on a bike,” Rivera said.

He wore a custom helmet with a GoPro camera attached, according to his brother.

His friends said he had custom-built the bike he was riding when he was killed.

Gans’ Instagram account was filled with videos of him doing wheelies and stunts. “Live every day like there’s no tomorrow,” he posted a few weeks ago.

The account attracted followers because he was such a talented rider, his mother said.

Gans was riding east on Poly Place at Seventh Ave. in Bay Ridge early Friday afternoon when the driver of an SUV in front of him swerved into the opposite lane outside the Army base, cops said.

Breaking News

As it happens

Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts.

Gans tried to veer out of the way, but he struck the rear of the SUV and was thrown from his motorcycle. He was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where he died of his injuries.

Jason Gans, 21, died after he slammed into the back of an SUV making a U-turn outside a U.S. Army base on Friday, police said.

No charges were immediately filed against the 54-year-old SUV driver.

Gans was riding with two friends, and one of them told the family that his last words at the scene of the accident were, “Tell my family I love them.”

A Brooklyn native who leaves behind two older brothers, two younger brothers and a little sister, Gans had a tattoo that read F.I.F. for “family is forever,” according to the GoFundMe page set up after his death.

His mom said the last thing he told her when he left home Friday morning was, “See you later, I love you.”

“The last thing I told my son was, ‘I love you, too,’ ” she recalled.

Rebecca White, Ellen Wulfhorst

Source link