Cyclist Killed In Sunset Park Is 18th Fatality This Year

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — A cyclist killed in Sunset Park on Monday morning became the 18th cyclist to lose their life this year and the second along what activists call the dangerous thoroughfare of Third Avenue.

The cyclist, a 30-year-old woman, was riding north around 9 a.m. on Third Avenue when a parked car door opened near 36th Street, police said. The cyclist swerved into traffic and was hit by a tractor trailer that had also been driving north, police said.

The woman was sent to NYU Langone Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The 37-year-old driver stayed on the scene while first responders rushed to the crash, police said.

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The fatality happened just eight blocks from where the first cyclist killed in 2019, Hugo Garcia, was hit back in January.

It also comes just a few days after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $58 million plan for new bike lanes and increased traffic enforcement to address the spike in cyclist deaths. At that point, 17 cyclists had been killed, up from 10 total deaths in all of 2018.

Advocates are now calling for that plan to be amended to include Third Avenue, which they have long called a dangerous corridor for cyclists and pedestrians alike.

"Third Avenue, which has eight lanes for cars and zero for bikes, is a product of a bygone era when transportation decisions were made with the sole intention of moving as many vehicles as possible through our neighborhoods, without regard to the people living and working in those neighborhoods," Transportation Alternatives Deputy Director Ellen McDermott said in a statement about the crash.

"Now that we have seen two tragic cycling deaths and one pedestrian death on Third Avenue in 2019, we expect the Department of Transportation will take swift action to amend the new Green Wave plan to include a redesign of this deadly corridor," she continued.

The group pointed out the similarity between Monday's fatality and Garcia's death earlier this year. Garcia, like Monday's victim, was sent into traffic by an open parked car door. He had hit the door and was thrown into the roadway, where he was hit by another car.

Activists said that Third Avenue is particularly dangerous given that the elevated Gowanus Expressway looms overhead, making it difficult to see at intersections around the highway's support structures.

"Dangerous driver behavior in this neighborhood shouldn’t be surprising; the environment suggests that this corridor belongs to the cars, and if you must ride a bike on this street, you do so at your own risk," McDermott continued.

Transportation Alternatives contended that the city should have a "serious discussion" about removing elevated highways that created these environments.

The two cyclist accidents are also not the only fatal rashes that have happened on Third Avenue this year.

Back in January, another person who was walking near 52nd Street died when they were hit by a car. Crash data shows that there have been more than a dozen injuries and fatalities between 52nd Street and 24th Street on Third Avenue in the last year.