Motorcyclist dies in 'road rage' crash with pickup truck, police say

An upstate man was charged with murder after he slammed his pickup truck into a motorcyclist off the Long Island Expressway in North Hills in an apparent road rage incident on Friday afternoon, Nassau police said.

Brian Noll, 64, was driving a 2022 Ford F-250 pickup east on the LIE near Exit 34 about 2:15 p.m. when "an altercation ensued" between him and a 29-year-old man on a 2016 Kawasaki motorcycle headed in the same direction to exit onto the South Service Road, Nassau County police said.

Noll "intentionally swerved" into the motorcycle and pinned the rider against the guardrail, severely injuring the motorcyclist, police said. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene; police have not released his identity.

"They were both trying to exit Exit 34 at the same time. It’s a one-lane exit. ... Nobody was giving in, to the point when they came to the service road — which is a three-lane road — they both entered into the furthest left lane of that roadway," said Det. Capt. Stephen Fitzpatrick, commanding officer of the Nassau police Homicide Squad, during a news conference on Saturday.

"This escalated to the point where the motorcyclist struck the mirror off of the F-250," Fitzpatrick said. "The driver opened his door to hit the motorcycle. The motorcycle took off, the driver intentionally took his truck and drove the motorcycle into the guardrail. ... It was an intentional act that was highly uncalled-for."

Noll's attorney, Jason Russo, of Garden City, called the incident "a tragic accident that was unfortunately caused by some reckless driving, not by my client, but by a motorcyclist on the road who took some very careless actions and caused his own demise."

"This is in no way intentional murder," Russo told Newsday after Noll's arraignment Saturday in Hempstead. "Mr. Noll is a 64-year-old grandfather who’s never had a single contact with the criminal justice system. ... He was coming back to Long Island yesterday to go to a baby shower of one of their family friends when this incident happened."

Russo said Noll had been a contractor in Nassau for about 40 years before retiring and moving upstate.

Noll's wife was a passenger in the truck during the incident. She was not injured, police said.

Fitzpatrick said the incident happened at "the end of a five-hour drive" for Noll, who was coming from his home in Scio, a small town in western New York. " In three minutes [it] turned deadly," he added.

"Call 911 if there’s somebody driving aggressively," Fitzpatrick said. "It should never escalate to this point."

Noll was arraigned on a second-degree murder charge Saturday in First District Court in Hempstead. The judge set bail at $300,000 cash bond, $1.5 million insured bond or $3 million unsecured bond, according to online court records.

"He’s going to remain in jail while the family attempts to come up with the [funds] for the bond, which we believe they will," the defense attorney said.

Noll's next court date is May 14.

During a similar road rage incident in Queens earlier this month, Jordan Rosen, 42, was charged with second-degree murder after striking motorcyclist William McField, 55, on April 5. Rosen pleaded not guilty to that charge on Friday, according to the Queens District Attorney's Office.

By Sam Kmack

sam.kmack@newsday.com

Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.