Photo by Daniel Efram
A 15-year-old girl died last night after a truck driver struck the Citi Bike she was riding with a 16-year-old girl at 14th Street and First Avenue, according to police and multiple published reports.
The collision happened around 9:30 last night. Police said the driver of a large commercial vehicle was turning right from westbound 14th Street onto First Avenue when the truck struck the pedal-assist bicycle the girls were riding.
A video obtained by Streetsblog appears to show the cyclist continuing across 14th Street rather than turning onto First Avenue, as police initially said.
Both girls were taken to Bellevue Hospital. The 15-year-old was pronounced dead there, while the 16-year-old was listed in stable condition.
The truck driver remained at the scene and was questioned by police. The NYPD Highway Patrol is investigating the collision.
Photos and video from the scene show the Citi Bike underneath the truck near the crosswalk.
The truck bore the logo of Badger Infrastructure Solutions, a private company that provides excavation and related services.
Media outlets identified the victim as Daria Serkov, who lived nearby in Peter Cooper Village.
21 comments:
Just awful
It’s a terrible thing to say but it seems true: using a car or truck to kill someone—even a child— carries little or no repercussions.
It is a very dangerous intersection there for bicyclists, motorists and pedestrians. The problem is that vehicles build up a high rate of speed coming up 1st Avenue in an attempt to get past the red traffic signal light on 14th Street and don't even get me started on the bicyclists who totally ignore the red light there speeding past that intersection going at least 40 miles per hour.
Oh this is just so, so sad.
Perfectly said! Thank you!
I live at 1st Ave and St Marks place. Ive seen many cars and bike riders going crazy fast and careless!
Apparently the NYPD is out there today ticketing...... cyclists
I doubt that was the driver’s intention. We only know the results, not the circumstances, so we can’t say who’s to blame.
Do you "doubt" that? Wow, well done? The reality is our streets are death traps - bad drivers (the tests here are absurd), zero traffic enforcement, no red light or speeding cameras, no daylighting or traffic calming. Every day people are killed - it's like we're a third world country (I guess we are).
This kind of victim blaming and hand wringing is pathetic.
Why are these ridiculous trucks allowed on our streets? Yes, car fixated boomers will whine and make excuses. But go to any civilized city in the world and trucks are offloaded outside and delivered by vans. Of course we can't manage that because we're basically a laughing stock that can't progress.
Of course they are. They're all fat, car obsessed morons from Long Island and Westchester who think parking in bike lanes and blowing through red lights is a human right. They're never going to enforce traffic and moving violations.
Bikes and vehicles should obey traffic rules. Cars and trucks kill a couple/few people every week in NYC—that’s unacceptable. And changeable if we care to enforce laws and implement road changes.
I don't think it's victim-blaming to say, based on the almost zero facts we know now, that it's not clear who was responsible. It could be a bad driver, it could be an irresponsible teenager, it could be stupid bad luck.
2:53 PM In this case it's a vacuum truck. Usually MTA or the utility companies use those trucks to clear out the sewers etc. so they can do underground work. So say this ridiculous vehicle was banned, how would we go about maintaining infrastructure? Also, offloading cargo trucks to vans. Wouldn't that just lead to more vans?
No, luck has nothing to do with it. Our streets are designed this way, where we have more pedestrian deaths than any other global city. These pathetic obfuscations and deflections are utterly transparent, and if people like you weren't so brainwashed by the automobile industry maybe we could move forward.
You can always tell the bad faith actors here by the lame attempts to shoehorn bikes into every road safety discussion. There is one contributing factor to our insane number of road deaths, and guess what, it isn't bikes.
Perhaps if people wised up, looked at the facts, and were outraged at what is actually causing the issues we wouldn't be seeing people killed day in day out.
These trucks are not here for leisurely reasons. They support the functioning of this city or are delivering goods to for businesses or residents. Safety is everyone's responsibility, but I've seen a lot more bikes disregard traffic rules than I do trucks - and I am a biker.
Dear NYC DOT,
The odds of a kid obeying traffic laws and operating a Citibike (or any e-bike) in NYC traffic safely is effectively ZERO.
Thank you
Signed Common Sense
PS. This was never about biking. This is about disrupting the city & promoting socialism
"This is about disrupting the city & promoting socialism"
You have no idea of what Socialism is. Why not just go the full MAGA and say Communism? Oh wait, never mind, since you're a MAGA and a Putlin lover, you're the Commie!.
Comrade. Do svidaniya.
BTW, I ride and drive. And if you want to see a joke in car traffic law, go to 25th Strreet for the FDR Drive exit and see how many stop at the stop sign. It's Mad Max/ Fury Road out there.
I live nearby and walk and cycle a lot. First, what a tragedy for everyone involved. I expect we will learn more about the circumstances over time. It is very easy for me to envision the truck driver turning right on First Avenue from 14th (not "speeding up First Avenue") and not seeing kids on a bike on the far side of his vehicle. As a cyclist I remind myself that, right or wrong, my bike and I will lose any combat between us and a motor vehicle. Teenagers goofing around probably don't have that mindset. I also find the Citi e-bikes can be hard to control when getting going due to heavy front weight; I recently fell over in this situation (thankfully unharmed). So there are a lot of factors here without jumping to blame drivers, bikers, traffic laws etc. -- many of whom/which could be better. I will add that I'm fine with the police targeting bicyclists for enforcement. My scariest moments as a cyclist are from other bikers, especially on ebikes. At least motor vehicles are visible, go in the right direction and are where they belong.
Buddy, I've never driven a car in my life. I walk or take transit just about everywhere. Better design of systems can reduce the likelihood that either human error *or* bad luck can cause an accident, and I completely support aggressive redesign of NYC traffic to prioritize foot traffic. But, yes, luck is often a factor in human events!
It's tragic, but two people riding on a Citibike built for one, (or any bike) is a dangerous situation, and if it was one of the e-bikes they can easily exceed the speed limit. I ride the pedal Citibikes and even on one of those I'm constantly on alert and would never think of adding a passengers on New York streets. But it's a tragedy and I'm sorry for the girls.
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