A cyclist riding an electric Citi Bike was killed Friday afternoon when he was hit by a beer delivery truck making a turn at a West Side Manhattan street corner.
The 26-year-old driver of the Lagunitas Beer truck was heading east on W. 50th St. when he made a right onto 11th Ave. around 2 p.m. and struck the 32-year-old cyclist, police said.
Witnesses said the cyclist was maneuvering his Citi Bike off the sidewalk when the beer truck struck him.
“The truck ran right over him,” witness Madison Galarza told the Daily News. “The driver was saying, ‘I didn’t see him, I didn’t see him,’ in Spanish. He was in shock.”
“The tires went right over him, you can see the marks of the tires on his back,” said 45-year-old Miriam Drivas, the owner of a nearby clothing store. “He was still breathing and bleeding from the side of his face. People stopped to help him, but he was bleeding so much that they backed off. Then he was gone.”
Medics pronounced the victim dead at the scene, cops said.
The truck driver remained at the scene and no arrests were initially made, police said.
Friday’s fatality marks the 11th cyclist killed on city streets so far this year, with nine of those on e-bikes, according to the latest Department of Transportation statistics.
Last year marked the second-deadliest year on record for cyclists with 29 fatalities including e-bikes. The year 1999 was the deadliest year on record, with city streets claiming 40 cyclists.
The city recorded 19 cycling deaths in 2022, 19 in 2021, and 26 cycling deaths in 2020.
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