A 42-year-old man riding an e-bike was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver on the Upper West Side on Sunday afternoon.
Ernesto Guzman, who was reportedly on his bike for work delivering pizzas, was killed just outside NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan hospital at the corner of East 97th Street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan at around 4:30 p.m., according to police. According to the preliminary investigation, Guzman was riding his bike south on 2nd Avenue when he was hit by the driver of a black Chevy Tahoe heading west on East 97th Street. Paramedics found Guzman on the road, with injuries to his body, and transported him into Metropolitan, where he died from his injuries.
Photos published by the NY Post show the SUV had TLC plates, with its passenger-side mirrors smashed, bumper damaged, and the airbags deployed. Police say the driver ditched the vehicle at East 96th Street and 3rd Avenue, and has not been seen since.
Guzman's death marks the 20th time a cyclist has been killed by a driver in NYC this year. A total of 206 pedestrians and cyclists have been killed in traffic collisions in New York City so far this year, the most in six years, according to an analysis by Transportation Alternatives. The transportation advocacy group projects that at the current rate, that number will surpass 243 deaths by the end of this year.
The city Department of Transportation disputes the group's tally, discounting eight deaths in the group's breakdown because some of those crashes involved drivers experiencing a heart attack or who were in a driveway, not in traffic.
Danny Harris, executive director for Transportation Alternatives, blamed Mayor Bill de Blasio's diminished investment in Vision Zero -- one of his signature policies -- for the increase in pedestrian deaths.
"Guzman’s death is not an accident, but the predictable and preventable result of the mayor slashing the Vision Zero and Green Wave Plan budgets, and delaying the rollout of the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program and the Streets Master Plan," Harris said in a statement. "The New York City Department of Transportation has the tools to deliver safer streets, but as long as the mayor holds them back, all New Yorkers are stuck with a system that prioritizes the convenience of drivers over human life.”
Harris added that delivery cyclists "have been on the front lines of the pandemic," adding that "food delivery remains one of the most dangerous in New York precisely because of constant exposure to impatient drivers piloting multi-ton assault vehicles."
The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
