A Lyft driver and his two passengers were the men killed in a crash with an SUV that had just fled a traffic stop on Rock Creek Parkway early Wednesday morning.
Mohamed Kamara, 42, lived with his sister and brother-in-law and drove for Lyft to earn money to send to his family in Sierra Leone.
“I know people say that when somebody’s dead, but that guy was genuinely the nicest person ever,” said his brother-in-law, Mohamed Fofana. “He doesn’t complain, he works hard and it’s unfortunate. He has a daughter, a 5-year-old daughter, in Sierra Leone.”
Fofana said losing Kamara heaps tremendous sadness on the family.
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“We are all in shock,” he said. “My boys don’t even know how to react, because, you know it’s devastating.”
One of the two young men riding in the Lyft was 22-year-old Olvin Torres Velasquez, who worked at a restaurant in Arlington. Family and friends gathered Thursday to remember him.
“There are no words to explain how we are feeling,” said his cousin Graciela Torres. “There’s nothing we can say. We all here, we just need justice.”
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The other passenger killed in the rideshare was 23-year-old Jonathan Cabrera Mendez. He and Velasquez were on their way home to Arlington after a night out in D.C.
U.S. Park Police say the driver of a Lexus SUV fled a traffic stop near the Kennedy Center and sped up the parkway before crossing the double yellow line and crashing into Kamara’s Honda Accord.
All three men in the rideshare were pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Lexus was taken to a hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening. His passenger sustained life-threatening injuries. So far no arrests have been made.
Mayor Muriel Bowser said Thursday the Metropolitan Police Department is not focused on traffic enforcement due to the shrinking size of the force and the work they have to do.
“We know that speed kills and so we have established a regime in this city where we try to use tickets as a way to discourage people from speeding, and we have to have more enforcement,” she said.
The tag number on the Lexus has been linked to 44 speed and signal violations dating to May. Those fines total $12,300.
The D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles says it has begun an informal review of the license plate on that car to determine why it had never been booted or towed despite so many infractions. Because the agency has not been officially notified by U.S. Park Police confirming the tag number on the SUV, they would not comment further.
According to the law, the tags on that car could not be renewed if it has any outstanding automated enforcement tickets.
Lyft issued a statement late Thursday afternoon, calling the crash "an unspeakable tragedy." The rideshare company said it is ready to assist law enforcement with the investigation and offered support to the victims' families.
