A garbage truck driver hit and killed a cyclist in Greenpoint early on Saturday morning without stopping.
Neftaly Ramirez, 27, was pedaling home to Manhattan from his job at pizza joint Paulie Gee’s when the driver for a city-contracted private carting service, which collects garbage from local businesses, struck him on Franklin Street by Noble Street at 12:30 am, according to police.
The driver of the green truck with yellow and white lettering fled, leaving Ramirez on the street, his black and yellow bicycle broken beside him.
Emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene, police said.
Authorities are still searching for the driver and have not named the carting service. A Department of Sanitation spokeswoman said the trash collector is not employed by the agency, which only picks up trash from private residences and city pails.
An Instagram post by Paulie Gee’s mourned Ramirez’s death.
“We are all heartbroken and will miss him very much. Please be careful out there on the roads,” it reads. “They are a very dangerous place these days.”
Cyclists and drivers are forced to share Franklin Street, which is painted with sharrows — chevrons designed to alert motorists to bike-riders, who have dismissed them as ineffective.
