A Queens moped driver shared stories with a close childhood friend about his previous brushes with disaster on the road just a day before he died crashing into a highway divider Saturday evening.
Gregory Peterson chatted with his friend, Joshua White, on Friday, urging his pal to stay safe after a bike accident last week. The next day the 37-year-old dad was dead.
“I recently had a bike accident too, I have a scrape on my face from last week and he was like ‘Yo Josh, stay off the bike, relax man, take care of yourself,’” White recounted to the Daily News. “And then he showed me a picture of his bike accident too… We kind of just laughed it off and everything. We laughing and then he was like be careful, be careful.
“And then after this I never seen him again,” White said.
Peterson was headed east on the Nassau Expressway, near Lefferts Blvd. around 7:15 p.m. Saturday when he crashed into a divider on the expressway, according to police. He died at the scene.
NYPD officers close a section of the Nassau Expressway at Lefferts Boulevard after a fatal crash involving a motorcycle, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (Jeff Bachner/New York Daily News)
White described Peterson as an experienced bike-rider since childhood. “We started off with GT, Mongoose, regular freestyle bikes but once the e-bikes started coming along, he gravitated towards that. The e-bikes are the trend,” White said.
“I just can’t understand how this happened,” he said. “He was always on his moped…. He would ride all around with it.”
Peterson worked at a produce market, and did some gig work for GrubHub, his friends said. He had children, and came from a big family.
“His energy couldn’t be matched, he was a good person. Really good personality, he would always greet you and show respect and love,” White said.
Peterson went by the nickname ‘G-Weezy,” White said.
Gregory Peterson, 37, died in Queens Saturday evening after he crashed into a highway divider.(Obtained by Daily News)
“That was my boy, we were the same age, we grew up together. We knew each other from the neighborhood. We used to meet each other at the park,” he said. “He would steal my bike sometimes and we’d fight each other. I used to take his bike, he used to take my bike, it was apart of growing up but we were always chill.”
A neighbor, Kean Edwards, said Peterson lost family members in a house fire a few years ago, but that he kept his helpful, friendly demeanor.
“He’s just a friendly guy,” he said. “If he sees you need help, he would help you.”
Another friend, Eon DeCarmo, said Peterson hung out with him Saturday afternoon, and was likely heading back home to Queens after visiting his sister in Brooklyn.
“He was here yesterday with us. Pretty much everyday we see him,” DeCarmo said.
DeCarmo recounted an accident Peterson got into a year ago, when he slid on a sandy, under-construction road.
“He was doing his thing, it’s a tragedy,” he said. “I would always tell him to please wear the helmet and stress to him to wear it.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if Peterson was wearing a helmet.
“I just wish he took a different way or something,” White said.