Three cyclists died in hit-and-runs final week in New York Metropolis, marking the grimmest week but in an already lethal 12 months for bike riders throughout the town.
Mamadou Diallo, 40, of Brooklyn, was struck by a BMW simply earlier than midnight Thursday on Avenue I in Brooklyn’s Flatlands neighborhood throughout a torrential downpour. He had been on an e-bike; the motive force fled the scene, in keeping with the Police Division.
Mr. Diallo had come to New York from Guinea, his good friend, Abdoulaye Barry, stated, calling him “a delicate particular person” and saying he was working making deliveries for DoorDash when he was struck and killed.
DoorDash didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Two days earlier, on Aug. 18, Paulina Tec Choc, 29, of Queens, was stopped on an e-bike on the intersection of Jamaica Avenue and Cypress Hills Road in Brooklyn simply earlier than 6 a.m. when the motive force of a Ford pickup truck struck and killed her, then fled the scene, the police stated. She had a husband and an 8-year-old daughter, in keeping with a GoFundMe organized after her dying.
That very same day, Angelo Camara, 51, a mechanic and a father of 5 from the Bronx, was hit by a BMW whereas biking on Bruckner Boulevard within the South Bronx. The driving force of that automotive fled the scene on foot, the police stated.
All three cyclists had been coming or going from work after they died, in keeping with associates and advocates. No arrests have been made in any of the three deaths.
Seventeen cyclists, driving each e-bikes and conventional bicycles, have been struck by automobiles and killed thus far this 12 months, in keeping with knowledge from the Police Division and the town Division of Transportation, in contrast with 10 deaths on the identical level final 12 months. A complete of 20 cyclists died in visitors collisions final 12 months, in keeping with the info.
“It is a disaster,” stated Alexa Sledge, the spokeswoman for Transportation Alternate options, which is organizing a protest in entrance of Metropolis Corridor on Wednesday to name consideration to the rise in bike owner fatalities throughout New York.
“The truth that three had been killed in simply three days is a name to motion for each elected chief in New York Metropolis,” Ms. Sledge stated.
Metropolis Corridor didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The rise in bike owner deaths comes after a 12 months wherein pedestrian deaths and visitors fatalities within the metropolis had been at a file low. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, himself an avid CitiBike person, has labored to revive plans for bike lanes that had been quashed beneath former Mayor Eric Adams. Mr. Mamdani additionally took to social media final week to focus on bike security and to vow that he would begin sporting a helmet.
At Wednesday’s protest, which Transportation Alternate options is organizing in partnership with Households for Protected Streets, cyclists plan to rally for a “systematic, complete security plan,” Ms. Sledge stated, that requires extra bike lanes, higher lighting, curb extensions and different enhancements throughout all 5 boroughs. Demonstrators will then lie down in a simulated “die-in” to carry consideration to the dangers they face whereas biking.