A man riding a Citi Bike was hit by a cab driver and critically injured in Chelsea on Sunday morning. An NYPD spokesperson said the driver was headed south on Ninth Avenue when he struck the 23-year-old cyclist, who was biking west along West 21st Street around 11:30 a.m. According to a preliminary investigation, the spokesperson told DNAinfo the cyclist ran a red light, but the spokesperson would not elaborate on how investigators determined that.
However, the super of a nearby building gave a different account to the Daily News. Roberto Pinell said, "The bike definitely had the green light, for sure," adding "He (the cyclist) kept flying after the bike landed. I mean, look at the bike, look at the rim, that car was going fast, that poor guy never had a chance."
The cyclist suffered a severe head injury and was taken to Bellevue Hospital. "The impact shattered the vehicle’s front window, left the man bloodied and mangled the blue rental bike," according to the Post.
The driver, 23, stayed on the scene and was not charged. He may have been an Uber driver or a livery driver.
Earlier this month, a woman riding a Citi Bike was run over by the driver of a ten-wheel truck in Midtown Manhattan; the driver allegedly yelled at the victim, "You came out of nowhere! You were in my blind spot."
In June, Dan Hanegby, 36, was fatally struck by a bus driver in Chelsea, becoming the first person killed using the bike share system. The police initially claimed that Hanegby swerved into the bus, but video obtained by a friend of Hanegby appeared to contradict that account.
