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Bud Light Truck Driver Kills Delivery Worker Near Controversial New Bike Lane
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Nov 13, 2020
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Courtesy of Zohran Mamdani
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Nov 13, 2020
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Elected officials and safe streets activists are calling for changes to a newly-installed Queens bike lane, after a 35-year-old delivery worker was killed by the driver of a Bud Light truck on Thursday morning.
Alfredo Cabrera Liconia, a Queens resident, was fatally struck while riding a motorized scooter near the intersection of Astoria Boulevard and Crescent Street around 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, police said. Family members reportedly said Liconia was an overnight delivery worker nearing the end of his shift.
Police have released few details about the crash. But video posted to Citizen shows the scooter trapped under the wheels of the semi-truck, which appears to be making a right turn onto Crescent Street. Trucks are prohibited from using the street, except when making local deliveries (it is not known if the truck was making a delivery).
It's unclear if Liconia was inside the bike lane when the collision occurred. In a statement, the NYPD said that both the truck driver and scooter rider were traveling east on Astoria Boulevard, when Liconia attempted to make a right turn. The driver was not charged at the scene, according to police.
A photo taken after the collision shows the truck breaching the "protected bike lane," crushing the flexible posts that the Department of Transportation installed to separate the lane from traffic earlier this year.
Safe streets activists have long criticized the DOT's use of flexi-posts, describing them as flimsy barriers that do little to keep vehicles out of protected lanes. Last month, local elected officials, including Rep. Carolyn Maloney and State Senator Michael Gianaris, delivered a letter to the DOT asking them to "stop cars from entering the bike lane on these high risk blocks" by installing concrete jersey barriers.
"What we know without a doubt is this massive truck turned into Crescent Street and entered into the bike lane. What we have called for would’ve disincentivized this turn from ever happening," Assemblyman-elect Zohran Mamdani, who helped organize the letter, told Gothamist on Friday.
"It doesn’t matter that Alfredo was driving a scooter, it doesn’t matter whether he was in a bike lane or adjacent, because the improvements we demanded were to save the lives of pedestrians, cyclists, people on scooters and drivers," he continued. "What you do in the bike lane has ramifications outside of it as well."
A spokesperson for the DOT did not respond to Gothamist's requests about whether the planned to implement changes for the Crescent Street lane.
The lane was added as part of the city's Green Wave plan, with the goal of providing a protected two-way path between the RFK and Queensborough bridges. Advocates said the lane was immediately popular, but lacked the protection initially promised by the DOT.
The city has seen 208 roadway deaths so far this year, half of which have involved pedestrians and cyclists, according to the DOT. The death toll is on track to eclipse the number of annual fatalities on city streets since Mayor Bill de Blasio launched the Vision Zero campaign six years ago.
"It’s an awful tragedy and we’re still trying to get all the details from the accident," City Hall spokesperson Mitch Schwartz wrote in an email to Gothamist. "We’re committed to holding drivers accountable and keeping cyclists safe in protected lanes."
In a statement, Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris accused the city of prioritizing the wishes of motorists, at the expense of the safety of New Yorkers.
“Another person is dead because our city has once again compromised safety in the name of driver convenience," Harris said. "While street safety advocates fought for and won a two-way protected bike lane on Crescent Street in Queens, the Department of Transportation chose to deploy nothing more than flexible plastic delineator posts to separate people on bikes and scooters from multi-ton motorized vehicles. This 'protected' bike lane was not protected."
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mayor de blasio
Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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