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Brooklyn Cyclist Killed By Hit-And-Run Rental Truck Driver
By
Emma Whitford
Published Jan 20, 2016
Modified Jan 20, 2016
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By
Emma Whitford
Published Jan 20, 2016
Modified Jan 20, 2016
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A 54-year-old man was fatally struck by the driver of a rental truck while biking along Avenue U in Sheepshead Bay on Tuesday evening. The cyclist was about 10 minutes away from his home when the crash occurred. The driver fled the scene, and had not been apprehended Wednesday morning. No arrests have been made.
NYPD officers responded to the intersection of East 9th Street and Avenue U shortly after 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, where they discovered Reng Can Ma of nearby Gravesend lying the roadway. Ma was transported to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Following a preliminary investigation, the NYPD's collision squad determined that the driver, reportedly behind the wheel of a rental Ryder truck, was headed west on Avenue U when he hit Ma, biking in the same direction.
Earlier on Tuesday Mayor de Blasio announced that 2015 had marked record lows in traffic-related deaths in NYC—231 fatalities in total compared to 297 in 2013, the year before his Vision Zero initiative was launched. Fourteen cyclists were killed in traffic crashes in 2015, compared to 20 the year previous. Since 2000, however, the number of cyclist deaths in NYC has remained stubbornly steady.
De Blasio recently signed a bill that will increase the maximum civil penalty for drivers who flee the scene of a car crash from $10,000 to $20,000 for crashes that result in death. But according to a report issued in December by Transportation Alternatives, fewer than 1% of the drivers involved in roughly 4,000 hit-and-run crashes last year that resulted in injury or death were charged with a crime.
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cyclist fatality
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Emma Whitford
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