A 22-year-old Brooklyn moped rider with dreams of becoming a condo developer died after colliding with a car driven by a drunken unlicensed driver, cops and heartbroken relatives said Sunday.
Joel Mota was zipping south on Third Ave. in Bay Ridge when he crashed into the passenger-side door of a 2013 Acura TSX going west on 67th St. about 4:45 a.m. on Saturday, cops said.
Mota died at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn from head and torso injuries, police said.
“He was a hardworking man. He had a lot of love for his family,” Mota’s brother Francisco Mota, 28, told the Daily News. “He was always passionate about the things that he did.”
Joel Mota was just a few blocks from home when he crashed.
A 21-year-old friend, a passenger on the gas-powered moped, suffered multiple fractures to his left arm and leg and was listed at the same hospital in stable condition, cops said.
Police arrested the Acura driver, 29-year-old Leslie Moreno, for driving while intoxicated, driving while ability impaired and being unlicensed.
She was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Sunday afternoon and released without bail.
Francisco Mota said he planned on following what happens when Moreno is due back in court in September.
“We’ll see how it goes forth. Hopefully we get to be there for the trial, if there is a trial, and be able to talk on my brother’s behalf,” he said. “But other than that, just on my behalf, there’s no hate.”
Joel Mota was born in Brooklyn and went to high school in the borough. He was a devoted uncle to his brother’s two young daughters.
“He was a very cool uncle type of person,” Francisco Mota said. “Always took them out for ice cream, always played with them, always he was there for them.”
“He never stopped working,” he added, noting that his brother did construction and restaurant work and anything else he could find to make ends meet.
“His dream was to go back to Mexico and start a business there. Start building stuff. He had property out there and he just wanted to build condominiums and just get into the real estate game out there, into the tourist and travel business. He just dedicated himself to that. That’s what his dream was to do.”
The two brothers last spoke about a week ago.
“We just told each other we love each other — and that’s it,” Francisco said.
With Julian Roberts-Grmela
Originally Published: June 22, 2025 at 1:35 PM EDT
