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John Daley ReportingFamily and friends of a Salt Lake teen are mourning his death from doing something a lot of young people are doing these days, riding too fast on a bullet bike.
The accident happened on 4th West Sunday. Friends have put up a makeshift monument there for Alexi Jimenez who died at that spot just two days shy of his 19th birthday.
These are sad days for Thomas Pacheco and his friends. Sunday they lost Alexi Jimenez in a motorcycle accident.
Thomas Pacheco, Friend: "We grew together, basically you know, since sixth grade. At my house every day. Come and steal my bread, my cookies. Unreal man."
Jimenez had gone to West High, came to the U.S. from Cuba at a young age as a refugee, is a twin and has a two-year-old daughter.
Margarita Simpson, Friend: "Very nice kid, very good kid."
Jimenez had a passion for motorcycles. He was riding his bullet bike Sunday. His friend Thomas was there when he lost control.
Thomas Pacheco: "Driving pretty fast. Came from the light down there. Coming towards this way, went into a big wobble. Went into a wobble and he was coming out of it for a minute. Then the curb got in the way. Hit the curb, you can probably see. Flew from the curb to here."
Last year Utah saw 23 motorcycle deaths and nationally the numbers are sharply up, 45-hundred last year. Nearly half, like Alexi Jimenez, were not wearing helmets.
Thomas Pacheco: "Wear a helmet. All the time riding. Be safe. Don't drive crazy. Don't drive fast. Think before you act I guess."
Thomas Pacheco remembers his friend as a smiling, fun guy who loved doing stunts and dreamed of riding his bike to fame. Jimenez, he says, rode fast but died young.
Thomas Pacheco: "It was so fast, so fast to lose someone's life. So young. So unreal. Surreal I guess you'd say. Oh."
Alexi Jimenez's friends say no obituary has run in the paper yet so many others may not be aware that there's a viewing today. Tomorrow is a mass and funeral at Guadalupe Church that starts at 11:00, and a burial at the City Cemetery.
Viewing Today:
Russon Brothers Mortuary
255 S. 200 E.
Salt Lake City
328-8846
Mass
Tomorrow
Guadlupe Church
Salt Lake City
11 AM
