A cyclist riding in a bike lane on Bushwick’s Evergreen Ave. was struck and killed on Tuesday morning by a truck driver turning to drive down Hart Street.
According to the NYPD, Leah Sylvain, a 27-year-old woman, suffered severe trauma to the head shortly before 7 a.m. on Tuesday when a Peterbilt fuel truck driven by Joseph Cherry, who had been sitting in northbound traffic on Evergreen, turned into the bike lane and hit her. She was taken to Woodhull Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Cherry was arrested at the scene and charged with failure to yield causing injury and failure to exercise due care, in addition to violation of another local law which was not specified by police.
Gothamist’s Miranda Katz notes that Evergreen Ave., a relatively narrow street, is not part of the city’s network of truck routes; Streetsblog’s David Meyer notes that a CBS New York video segment from the scene of the accident incorrectly identified several facts about the incident, suggesting that Sylvain was at fault for the accident. DNAinfo spoke with a witness to the accident who described the front of Sylvain’s bike as “done” in the wake of the crash.
The incident occurs several months after ongoing controversy about the addition of more bike lanes to Bushwick’s streets.