A father of triplets killed when a car slammed into a crowded NYC sidewalk was waiting for his mother’s bus when he was struck — and it was a longtime friend behind the wheel.

Michael Saint-Hilaire, whose daughter and sons turn 2 next month, was texting with his mom as she approached on the bus, uncle Jonathan Saint-Hilaire told The Post.

“I’m here waiting for you,” the victim wrote, according to the uncle. “He was waiting for his mom. She spoke to him at 5:53, and the crash happened at 6.”

The uncle was very close to his nephew, a doting dad who was seen in heartbreaking photos with the tots that his loved ones shared.

“He was like my kid,” he said. “I used to take him for weeks at a time, when he grew up, he would call me his brother. You know when they do eulogies, they only say good things, but there are only good things to say about Michael.”

Alleged drunken driver Elvin Suarez of Morningside Heights, who lived just two blocks from the crash scene, had known many of the victims for years, residents in the area said.

Michael Saint-Hilaire and a second man, doorman Jason Negron, were killed while three others were seriously hurt.

Negron, 46, had just ended his shift at 4 p.m., one friend said.

His mother declined to speak when reached by The Post.

A colleague at the West 110th building where Negron worked was shocked at his death.

“I’m still processing it all,” he said.

A vase of flowers in the lobby included a note which read, “Jason, you will be dearly missed. We love you.”

Saint-Hilaire’s uncle was angry at the driver accused of killing his nephew.

“For a drunk person to come and take his whole life, it’s just not fair,” he said. “It’s not fair at all. Parents aren’t supposed to bury their kids. He just turned 35 in February. He texted me ‘Thank you’ on Friday with the two hands in prayer [emoji].”

The new dad worked in a hospital operating room, he said, but tried to get into the NYPD about a year ago.

Saint-Hilaire’s grandmother had asked him not to join, the uncle said.

“She said she couldn’t take it if something happened to him,” the uncle recalled. “He was my mom’s favorite. She’s devastated.”