A bicyclist was struck and killed by a dump truck just after 10:50 a.m. Monday near 151 West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan, close to Macy's in Herald Square, and the truck did not stop. Police say both vehicles were headed west toward Seventh Avenue when the collision happened, and the search for the truck was still underway as of publication.
According to ABC7 New York, police said preliminarily that a person driving a dump truck westbound on West 34th Street toward Seventh Avenue collided with a man riding a bike who was also traveling westbound on the same street. The outlet reported that the driver did not remain at the scene and continued driving westbound after the crash. EMS pronounced the cyclist dead at the scene, the station reported.
ABC7's report described the victim as a bicyclist, as did the outlet's headline.
Street Closed, Search Continues
Per the station's report, no arrests had been made and the investigation remained ongoing at the time of publication. PIX11 reported that first responders were notified of the incident at around 10:51 a.m.
West 34th Street between Seventh Avenue and Broadway was closed to traffic because of the investigation, the same report noted, and delays were expected in the area as officers worked the scene near one of Midtown's busiest shopping corridors.
A Second Deadly Truck Crash in Weeks
The Midtown crash comes just over a week after another fatal truck collision involving a cyclist in Manhattan. A large truck struck a Citi Bike in the East Village on September 18, killing a 15-year-old girl and injuring a 16-year-old rider, according to The New York Times. That collision happened while the bicycle and the truck were making the same right turn from East 14th Street onto First Avenue, the Times reported, and the driver, a 57-year-old man, was not injured and was questioned at the scene, with no arrests made as the investigation continued. Badger Infrastructure Solutions, a company that provides excavation and other related services, confirmed early the next day that one of its vehicles had been involved in that accident.
Vision Zero and the Truck Problem
The Midtown death lands against a backdrop of city data showing mixed progress on street safety. Through June 29, New York City had recorded 94 traffic fatalities, including 46 pedestrian fatalities, according to the NYC Department of Transportation. Separately, a New York City Council analysis of nearly 10,000 intersections found that interventions slowing vehicle speeds and increasing pedestrian visibility delivered the greatest safety impact, per the New York City Council.
Vehicle size has also drawn scrutiny nationally. A New York Times analysis found that the number of pedestrians killed each year has risen by about 75 percent since the safety trend reversed around 2009, and estimated that 200 to 400 pedestrians a year would not have died if vehicles had stayed roughly the same size as 25 years earlier — about 10 percent of the recent increase in pedestrian deaths. The analysis pointed to taller hoods and larger blind zones as the reasons bigger vehicles are deadlier for pedestrians, though the dossier does not tie that broader trend to the cause of Monday's specific crash.
No further details on the truck's identity, its driver, or the circumstances of the collision had been released as of publication. Hoodline will update this story as police release more information.
