A passenger who was killed when her friend’s car rear-ended a tractor trailer on a Brooklyn expressway was a fun-loving music fan with positive energy to spare, her family said Wednesday.
Karen Diaz had plenty of life left to live, her broken-hearted brother said. Somehow, she managed to be humble and be the life of the party at the same time. When someone described a people person, she was the one who came to mind, he said.
“I didn’t even know she knew so many people and how many people she impacted with her life,” Kevin Saldarreaga, 24, said of the big sister he lived with in the Staten Island home they shared with their mother.
“I couldn’t have imagined that’s how social she was, but it made sense. Her energy was unmatched. She was humble but would put so much effort and energy into something and that’s something people need to learn in life, to appreciate life as much as you can.”
Diaz, 30, was in the passenger seat of a 2013 black 535i BMW when it ran into the back of a white 2000 Freightliner on the Gowanus Expressway in Bay Ridge Wednesday night.
Cops said her sedan-driving friend was speeding and impaired as he raced along the Staten Island-bound side of the roadway. Diaz, died at the scene, cops said. The 46-year-old truck driver was not hurt.
The BMW driver, Mark Dookhan, 30, was taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn in stable condition. Dookhan was charged with DWI and refusing to take a breath test.
After an arraignment Thursday, Dookhan was released on $300,000 bail.
He refused to submit to a Breathalyzer test at the scene, prosecutors said. He also refused to have his blood drawn at the hospital, said Assistant Brooklyn DA Wilfredo Cotto.
“The defendant did exhibit all the common indicators of intoxication,” Cotto said.
Dookhan’s lawyer, Marianne Bertuna, said there is no evidence that he was drunk at the time of the accident.
According to court records, there were no skid marks at the scene, which, according to prosecutors, meant the BMW driver never even tried to stop.
An EMT who responded to the crash said Dookhan smelled like alcohol, had watery and bloodshot eyes, according to prosecutors. He also had cuts on his face, the EMT said.
Dookhan also admitted to having four or five vodka drinks in Manhattan before the crash, prosecutors said.
But Dookhan denied being the driver of the BMW in the crash.
He said that an “unidentified female was driving” the BMW when it crashed into the tractor trailer, according to prosecutors.
The woman he says was driving fled the scene after the crash, Dookhan told cops.
Police said Dookhan has a previous DWI conviction.
More recently, on March 1, he was charged in Brooklyn with assault, criminal mischief and menacing. In that incident, he was driving through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel with a 21-year-old woman when they got into an argument. He allegedly punched her in the face and took her cellphone to prevent her from calling for help.
But on Wednesday, Saldarreaga was more focused on his sister.
“The first thing I thought was, ‘Did she suffer?’ Literally the first thing I asked the detective was,, ‘Was it fast?’ And he told me, ‘No.” After that, the second thing on my mind was, my mom. It was all very all of a sudden. My mom was the most important person.”
Diaz was a manager at Sephora, and earned the high praise of her bosses and co-workers, Saldarreaga said.
She was goofy, happy person who loved to sing, especially her new favorite song, “La Noche de Anoche” by Bad Bunny and Rosalia.
“I left the house and I could hear her singing and I was singing with her from a distance before I left. She didn’t even know,” Saldarreaga said. “That is something I told my family. “We have a song now we can play to remind ourselves of her. I know she felt his music and it was just something that you have to keep in mind. She loved music.”
