Motorcyclist ‘performing a wheelie’ dies after colliding with car, detectives say

A motorcycle rider is dead after the Broward Sheriff’s Office said he crashed into a car while doing a wheelie in Deerfield Beach.

The fatal accident happened Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which for several years has been a day when motorcycles and all-terrain-vehicles usually flood South Florida streets. This year, numbers were down, likely because of the pandemic and the resultant cancellation of the Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Miami.

It was not immediately clear if the motorcyclist, identified as Alvaro Escalante, 37, had participated in the “Wheels Up, Guns Down” ride.

The accident happened just before 10:30 p.m. Monday at 4100 W. Hillsboro Blvd.

According to BSO, Escalante, of Deerfield Beach, was heading west on a 2012 Red Aprilia RSV4 motorcycle when he struck the driver’s side of a 2018 white Subaru WRX sedan. The driver of the sedan, Marcio Nantes Vehara Filho, was about to make a left turn when Escalante “performed a wheelie and continued westbound through the intersection striking Filho’s vehicle,” BSO said.

Escalante was thrown from the motorcycle. He was taken to Broward Health North, where he died.

Filho remained at the crash site and was cooperative with investigators.

Detectives say reckless driving and excessive speed could have caused the crash “based on the vehicle damage and physical evidence left on scene.”