In the two months since his son was killed cycling across the Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Brewery founder Steve Hindy has shepherded nearly $40,000 in donations to a group working to make city streets safer for bikes.
Most recently, Bobby Gagnon, owner of the Gate, a Park Slope bar that Steve Hindy called his “local pub,” donated $3,500 — from the sale of Brooklyn Brewery’s Winter Ale — to Transportation Alternatives.
Hindy’s son Sam accidentally biked onto the Manhattan Bridge’s upper level, which is reserved for cars and trucks, on Nov. 16. When he realized his mistake, he turned around, struck a concrete barrier, and fell to the lower level, where he was hit by a car. The devoted cyclist was 27.
Indeed, the morning of his death, Sam Hindy sold his car to one of his father’s colleagues at the Williamsburg-based brewery.
“He was committed to going totally green,” said Steve Hindy. “So we immediately thought of Transportation Alternatives when this tragedy struck us.”
Transportation Alternatives’ Executive Director Paul Steely White promised that the money, donated by friends and colleagues of the Hindy family, would go towards preventing such tragedies.
