An 18-year-old man was struck and killed by a truck driver while cycling in a protected bike lane in Sunnyside on Monday morning, according to the NYPD. Photo via Google Maps
Aug. 7, 2024 By Bill Parry
An 18-year-old man was struck and killed by a truck driver while riding a bicycle in a protected bike lane in Sunnyside on Monday morning, according to the NYPD.
The cyclist was traveling eastbound in the protected bike lane of 43rd Avenue at 7:36 a.m. when the 57-year-old driver of a white 2007 Freightliner box truck began to turn right on 34th Street from 43rd Avenue and struck the rider with the front right cab portion of the truck as it turned, throwing the victim to the roadway, where he suffered head trauma.
Police from the 108th Precinct in Long Island City responded to a 911 call of a motor vehicle collision at the location and found the rider unconscious and unresponsive in the intersection.
EMS responded to the location and pronounced him dead at the scene. His identification is pending proper family notification.
The driver remained at the scene. There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD’s Highway Collision Investigation Squad.
The fatal collision occurred in a warehouse district alongside the Sunnyside Yards, just five blocks from the intersection where cyclist Gelasio Reyes was struck and killed as he rode home to Corona from his job as a delivery worker in Manhattan on April 2, 2017.
A second cyclist, David Nunez, was struck and seriously injured just two days later at the same intersection, paving the way for the city’s Department of Transportation to install the protected bike lane on 43rd Avenue that the 18-year-old cyclist was using on Monday morning and a second protected bike lane on Skillman Avenue.
Transportation Alternatives are calling on the city to reinforce protected bike lanes with concrete after a cyclist was struck and killed by a truck driver at a Sunnyside intersection Monday morning. Photo courtesy of Transportation Alternatives
Transportation Alternatives, which advocated for the bike lanes, noted that while the rider was riding in the protected bike lane, the intersection was unprotected, with green paint ending at crossings with no raised elements, leaving cyclists still vulnerable to turning vehicles.
“All New Yorkers have a right to get where they are going safely, and our city’s leaders failed to protect this bike rider,” Transportation Alternatives Co-Executive Director Elizabeth Adams said. “As cars and trucks get bigger and bigger, paint and plastic are not protection. To slow down drivers, increase visibility and keep people safe, this administration must physically protect pedestrians and bike riders with concrete.”
The victim on Monday was the 14th cyclist killed in traffic violence in the city and the third to have been killed in Queens so far this year, according to TransAlt.
In addition to the bike lane, the intersection at 43rd Avenue and 34th Street currently includes a pedestrian island and daylighting, which improves visibility and shortens crossing times.
“This is a horrific tragedy and our thoughts are with the victim’s family and loved ones,” a DOT spokesman said. “We are reviewing the details of the crash.”
He added that NYC DOT acknowledges that there is always more work to be done.
Council Member Julie Won noted that Monday’s fatal collision occurred less than three weeks after a truck driver struck and injured a cyclist near the Sunnyside Library on Greenpoint Avenue near 43rd Street.
“As the number of large trucks and vehicles increases on our streets, protected bike lanes must be more than green paint and flexi-posts,” Won said. “DOT must create protected bus lanes with concrete barriers to keep people safe.”
She also called on the city to do more to address the proliferation of traffic in her district.
“We must also ensure that DOT redesigns the Truck Route Network so trucks are routed away from densely populated neighborhoods and heavily used community areas,” Won said.
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