A speeding Mercedes driver blew threw multiple red lights before crashing in the Bronx early Thursday, leaving the motorist dead and his passenger critically hurt, cops said.

Kreshnik Kajtazaj was speeding east on Morris Park Ave. in a 1998 Mercedes-Benz ML320, blowing through red lights, when he veered off the roadway near Haight Ave. and slammed into a pole about 12:15 a.m., police said.

Kajtazaj, 26, died at the scene from severe head trauma.

“He had such a passion for life,” his grieving mother, Florina Kajtazaj, told reporters. “So many friends.”

Medics rushed Kajtazaj’s 24-year-old passenger to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was in critical condition.

Grieving friends streamed into Kajtazaj’s family’s home a mile from the crash scene in the hours after he died. The family is originally from Kosovo.

“We’re a family of eight,” the mother said. “We fled the country, the war, to come for a better life.”