A speeding Brooklyn Mercedes-Benz driver who blew through a red light and crashed into an MTA bus — and then ran off, leaving his friend to die in the wreck — has been criminally charged two months later, police said Wednesday.
Michael Rivera was arrested Tuesday for manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of a fatal crash, speeding and blowing a red light. The blistering Feb. 26 Williamsburg crash killed his friend Alex Caba, who turned 33 that day.
Caba was planning on spending his birthday quietly at home until Rivera, 31, insisted on taking him out, the victim’s sister Ivelise Caba told the Daily News on Wednesday.
“He wasn’t planning on going outside. He had no intentions of going out. Michael was the one who called him and said, ‘Come out, come out!’ Eventually my brother was like, ‘All right.’ ”
Caba left with Rivera about three hours before the deadly crash, the sister said.
“These have honestly just been two months of shock, still in disbelief,” she said. “It’s hard to have someone come home every day and then gone.”
According to police, Rivera was speeding south on Harrison Ave. when he recklessly blew through a steady red light at Lorimer St. and was struck by a B48 bus.
The bus driver, eastbound on Lorimer St., had the green light when he struck the rear passenger side of the Mercedes. The impact sent the Mercedes spinning onto the sidewalk, where it struck a Citi Bike kiosk.
Caba, who was riding in the back seat, flew from the car, landing on the street.
As Caba lay dying in the street, Rivera and three others in the mangled wreck ran off on foot, police and MTA sources said.
Ivelise Caba said Rivera never came by to explain to her family what happened.
“He has been hiding,” she said. “He continued to live his life as if nothing happened.”
Caba and Rivera lived five blocks from each other in Williamsburg, about a mile from where the crash took place
The Caba family can’t imagine why Rivera would flee when his friend was dying.
“As a friend, you should want to stay and help,” the dead man’s mother, Olga Caba, said in February. “They ran away. They left Alex alone.”
Rivera’s arraignment was pending in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Wednesday.
“The word is so-called justice but this justice isn’t going to bring my brother back,” said Ivelise Caba.
