A cyclist was run over and killed in Williamsburg on Tuesday morning, just a block from the scene of another fatal crash less than 12 hours earlier.
According to police, the 64-year-old cyclist was riding eastbound on Broadway at about 7:52 a.m. when someone opened the door of a car parked near the intersection of Lorimer Street. The cyclist collided with the door and was sent careening into the next lane, into the path of an oncoming Hyundai Elantra.
The driver of the Elantra hit the cyclist, knocking him to the ground, then ran him over, leaving him pinned beneath the vehicle. Emergency responders moved the car and found that the cyclist was unconscious and had sustained head trauma. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Authorities have not released the victim’s name, pending family notification.
Cops said the driver of the Hyundai Elantra remained on the scene, and an investigation is ongoing. No arrests have been made as of Tuesday afternoon.
It was Williamsburg’s second fatal crash in fewer than 12 hours — at about 9:45 p.m. on Feb. 26, 33-year-old Alex Caba-Gutierrez was killed after the driver of the car he was riding in ran a red light at the corner of Harrison Avenue and Lorimer Street and slammed into an MTA bus, ejecting Caba-Gutierrez from the vehicle.
In a post on social media, Council Member Lincoln Restler said that students from I.S. 318, which is less than a block from the scene of Tuesday’s crash, witnessed the incident. He has asked the Department of Transportation to perform an immediate safety review of the intersection, he said, and asked the NYPD to assign a crossing guard to the school “for the foreseeable future.”
According to NYC Crash Mapper, nine crashes have been reported at the intersection of Lorimer Street and Broadway in the last five years; and ten people — two cyclists, two pedestrians, and six motorists — have been injured.
Street safety group Transportation Alternatives said in a statement that the intersection is a dangerous one, “filled with slip lanes that encourage speeding and no infrastructure to keep pedestrians or cyclists safe.” The group added that Broadway itself, a Vision Zero Priority Corridor, has seen 20 serious injuries since 2022.
“We are heartbroken to learn that drivers killed two New Yorkers in Williamsburg within 24 hours – and horrified that children witnessed the impact of a fatal crash during their morning trip to school. We send our thoughts and condolences to their community and their loved ones,” said Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris, in a statement. “We know which streets and intersections in our city are dangerous – it’s time to truly fix them before more New Yorkers are injured or killed on the mayor’s streets. This street has been a Vision Zero Priority corridor for over a decade, and let this be another tragic call for the City to fix it and keep cyclists safe.”
Correction 2/28/24, 12:20 p.m.: This story previously misstated the name of the public school near the scene of the crash. We regret the error.
