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Man killed by e-bike delivery worker who blew stop sign in Greenpoint, witnesses say
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Mar 23, 2025
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Ramsey Khalifeh/Gothamist
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Mar 23, 2025
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A 49-year-old man died in Brooklyn on Friday night after he was run over by a delivery worker who sped through a stop sign on his e-bike, according to the NYPD and witnesses at the scene.
Police identified the victim as Luis Cruz, and said he was struck by the e-bike rider around 7:40 p.m. at the intersection of Franklin and India streets in Greenpoint. Jack Collins, a restaurant worker in the neighborhood, said Cruz was double parked and exiting his car when he was struck. He said the e-bike rider was rushing to deliver food.
“He died basically on the spot,” said Collins, 23. “These electric bikes, they’re no joke. They can get up to 25, 30 miles an hour, and he blows right through the stop sign.”
The NYPD said the e-bike rider remained at the scene after the crash. Police said they made no arrests and the investigation into the death is ongoing.
Collins said the restaurants on the stretch of Franklin Street usually buzz with delivery workers hustling in and out to pick up orders. He said the intersection at India Street is sandwiched between two others with stoplights, which prompts motorists to run through the stop sign.
“It's not a unicorn incident,” said Collins “It's happened a lot. I've seen several people get swiped.”
Lawmakers across the city have for years called for tighter regulations for e-bikes, saying they should be treated no differently than cars. DOT officials said e-bikes account for less than 2% of the traffic deaths in the city and less than 4% of the traffic injuries. Between 2021 and 2024, six pedestrians were killed by e-bike riders — compared to 471 from other vehicles, according to city data.
FDNY officials have also linked unregulated or bootleg e-bike batteries to hundreds of fires across the city in recent years.
City officials estimated there are more than 65,000 delivery workers across the five boroughs, the majority of whom do not use cars and rely on e-bikes. City lawmakers passed legislation in 2021 mandating a minimum wage for delivery workers, but their pay is still tied to the volume of orders they deliver.
Collins said the systems set up by food delivery apps like GrubHub, Seamless and UberEats encourage reckless riding by workers on e-bikes.
“This is just the culture we've created around both earning money and instant gratification, like getting your food delivered to you so you don't have to walk in the cold,” he said. “The convenience of it is so much more paramount.”
Tagged
new york city
public safety
transportation
brooklyn
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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