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Cyclist killed in Brooklyn crash near Prospect Park
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Oct 12, 2022
Modified Oct 13, 2022
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Catalina Gonella
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Oct 12, 2022
Modified Oct 13, 2022
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A bicyclist was struck and killed by the driver of a tractor-trailer in Brooklyn Wednesday morning, the NYPD said.
The fatal crash happened around 7 a.m. at the corner of Parkside Avenue and Parade Place near Prospect Park, killing 25-year-old Kala Santiago of Brooklyn, officials said. A preliminary investigation found that both the bicyclist and the 2013 Peterbilt tractor trailer were traveling eastbound on Parkside Avenue when the collision occurred.
The driver stayed on the scene and no arrests were made, the NYPD said.
Santiago was the 14th cyclist to be killed this year. Police had no further information about what may have led to the collision. In an interview with Streestblog, the driver of the tractor-trailer – identified as Saeed Ahmed – said the cyclist fell into his truck after she “probably hit” a parked car on the street as he rode by.
In a joint statement with advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, City Councilmember Rita Joseph, who represents the Brooklyn district where the incident occurred, said the city needs to do more in the name of safer city streets.
“The tragic death of yet another cyclist in our city, this time in my own neighborhood, shows how far we need to come to address traffic violence,” Joseph said. “We’re sick and tired of seeing our neighbors, friends, and family being needlessly killed on our roads, and I am going to continue doing everything in my power to make our streets as safe as possible.”
Parkside Avenue is not a designated truck route, according to the city’s own truck route maps. The busy route, between Coney Island and Ocean Avenue, recorded 161 injuries over the past five years, including 28 bicyclists and 25 pedestrians, killing or seriously injuring 10 people per mile between 2014 and 2018, Transportation Alternatives said.
Riding along the busy corridor on Wednesday evening, Rafael Jaeger told Gothamist that he biked by the scene of the accident about 30 minutes before it had occurred. Riding a bike in New York City, he said, was a dangerous endeavor because of poor enforcement of laws that say the bike lanes should be kept clear for cyclists.
“Anywhere you go, the bike lane is as likely to blocked as not,” he said. “Personally, when I’m riding, I’m often in the bike lane, but on certain blocks, I know the bike lane’s going to be blocked. In those cases, you’re just as unsafe in the bike lane as you are out of it.”
Transportation Alternatives has been pushing the City Council and Mayor Eric Adams to step up its traffic safety initiatives after a report in the spring found that traffic crashes had killed 59 people in the first quarter of this 2022, amounting to a 44 percent spike over the same period in the previous year.
“We are outraged and heartbroken that another New Yorker was killed riding a bike. We send our deepest condolences to the loved ones of the woman killed this morning,” Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris said. “Asking multi-ton tractor trailers and people riding bikes to share space on our streets results in preventable tragedies such as this one.”
Harris called on the mayor and Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez to fast-track the construction of more protected bike lanes citywide as promised via a city initiative to add 30 miles of bike lanes this year.
"Lives are on the line,” he said. “We cannot afford to miss this deadline.”
Speaking at a separate news conference on Wednesday, Rodriguez said the city had completed eight miles of protected bike lanes so far this year and hoped to complete 20 by January. He spoke earlier on Wednesday at the city’s unveiling of a new 1.2-mile-long, two-way protected bike lane on Schermerhorn Street in one of the busiest stretches of Downtown Brooklyn, and said more streets across the city will look like that in the coming years.
A GoFundMe page was created on Wednesday in the name of raising money for Santiago's family and collected more than $18,000 as of Thursday evening.
Contributed reporting by Stephen Nessen.
This story has been updated to include information on the victim's GoFundMe page.
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Catalina Gonella
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