A 26-year-old mother was killed when two jet skis collided during a boozy, moonlit ride on the Harlem River, according to prosecutors and the victim’s family.
Zielissa Vargas was with a group of friends all riding jet skis when the crash occurred just north of the RFK Bridge around 10 p.m. Saturday, prosecutors said.
“She was a good and kind person,” the victim’s mother told the Daily News through tears. “Oh my god, She’s gone.”
The victim was riding on the back of the watercraft operated by a 26-year-old man, who had just made a U-turn when the second jet ski, driven by a 27-year-old man and carrying a 28-year-old woman, slammed into them, cops said.
The crash sent all four people flying into the water, including Vargas, who was knocked unconscious.
“She was a beautiful, charismatic woman who brought light wherever she went,” said the victim’s brother, 35-year-old Uziel Vargas. “It’s very hard. Very hard.”
Harbor Patrol responded and performed CPR on the victim, but she could not be revived. Medics rushed her to Harlem Hospital, where she died.
Prior to the crash, the victim and her friends had been drinking on Randall’s Island, where the Fish Fry music festival was being held, after arriving there by jet ski around 11 a.m. that morning, court documents show. The group was returning to Fort Lee, New Jersey, when the collision occurred, according to prosecutors.
A breathalyzer conducted less than two hours after the collision found the 27-year-old driver of the jet ski that slammed into Vargas’s vessel had a blood-alcohol content of 0.141 — well over the legal limit of .08, prosecutors said.
That driver later told investigators he’d had three drinks while on Randall’s Island and that he’d crashed into the other wave runner because he couldn’t see in the dark, court documents show.
Yeisson Reyes Rodriguez, 27, was arrested Sunday and charged with manslaughter and vehicular manslaughter for the fatal crash. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and was released after posting $25,000 bail.
Rodriguez has no criminal history in New York, but has criminal contacts in New Jersey, where he lives in Passaic, prosecutors said at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Sunday. He immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic.
A Bronx resident, Vargas had a 1-year-old son. She was born in the Dominican Republic and worked as both a bus attendant for the Department of Education and with children at a day care center, her brother said.
“She was a young mother full of life,” said Uziel. “She enjoyed being with friends and family. She passed too soon.”
The victim’s family has not spoken to the friends who were with Vargas when she died.
“None of the others have come around offering condolences,” said the victim’s brother-in-law, 28-year-old Joshua Nunez. “We know they’re her friends, but we don’t know them.”
A sister posting on Facebook said the victim’s funeral would be hosted by the International Funeral Service of New York located at 1761 Amsterdam Ave. at 4 p.m. on Sunday. Her family expects it will be the first time they see her body since she died.
“We haven’t been able to see her,” said Uziel. “We haven’t had any closure. We’re probably going to have to wait for the funeral.”
