Citi Bike Rider Hurt At Same Spot Where Robyn Hightman Died

CHELSEA, NY — A Citi Bike rider was injured in a collision with a taxi at the same intersection where a 20-year-old cyclist died less than a month ago, witnesses and authorities said.

The female Citi Bike cyclist was t-boned by a cab on the corner of West 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue just before 10 a.m., and less than a block from where Robyn Hightman died in June, witness Paige Cleary told Patch.

Cleary, who works in the neighborhood, saw the cab driving west on 23rd Street as the northbound cyclist rode through a red light on Sixth Avenue, Cleary said.

"She was sort of in the middle and she screamed," Cleary said. "I saw the taxi come and t-bone her."

The cyclist did not appear seriously injured. She accepted an ice pack from emergency responders and later left in a cab.

Police confirmed the taxi driver remained on scene but did not have information on whether the driver was charged or issued any summonses.

A Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District public safety officer said the cyclist reported her brakes malfunctioned, but after police inspected the Citi Bike and found the brakes to be working, he returned it to a dock.

Patch was unable to confirm his information with police or a Citi Bike spokesperson who said the incident was under investigation.

The crash occurred less than a month after Hightman was killed between 23rd and 24th streets along Sixth Avenue in Chelsea. Within a week, two more cyclists were killed, both in Brooklyn.

The recent uptick in cyclist deaths sparked hundreds of cyclists to host a mass die-in in Washington Square Park to demand safer streets this month.

Fifteen cyclists have been killed in New York City in 2019.

New data from the NYPD show cars are more deadly than guns in New York City, the New York Daily News reported. In the first six months of 2019, crashes involving cars, vans, trucks and buses killed 111 people, compared to 61 people who died in shootings, the News reported.