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Teen riding Citi Bike dies in Queens hit-and-run, marking 3rd bike-share death of 2023
By
Bahar Ostadan
Published Apr 11, 2023
Modified Apr 11, 2023
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Jake Offenhartz/Gothamist
By
Bahar Ostadan
Published Apr 11, 2023
Modified Apr 11, 2023
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A 16-year-old boy riding a Citi Bike was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Queens on Monday night, becoming the third person to die so far this year while using the bike-share service.
Police said the teen, Jaydan McLaurin, was riding an electric Citi Bike north on 21st Street at the intersection of 21st Avenue in Astoria around 9:30 p.m. when he was struck by a man driving a 2022 BMW X7 heading in the opposite direction.
The driver fled the scene, and police later arrested 18-year-old Farmingdale resident Yaser Ibrahim, according to the NYPD. Ibrahim was charged with driving without a license, leaving the scene of a fatal crash and operating a car with a tinted windshield, police said.
Attorney information for Ibrahim was not immediately available.
McLaurin was taken to NYC Health & Hospitals Harlem, where he was pronounced dead. He was the third Citi Bike rider fatally struck in 2023, and the second to die this year while riding an e-bike rented from the company.
Tamara Chuchi Kao, 62, was killed by a cement truck driver in Astoria while riding an analog Citi Bike in January, according to police. Days later, Sarah Schick, a 37-year-old mother of two, was killed by a box truck driver while on an electric Citi Bike in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
Next month marks a decade since Citi Bike's launch in New York, which began with docks in Manhattan south of 79th Street and in parts of western Brooklyn. The network has since expanded into farther reaches of Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Its ridership has also grown drastically. The system clocked a record 135,005 trips in a single day last September. A spokesperson for Lyft, which owns Citi Bike, said the system's ridership is up 36% this year from the same point in 2022.
The first Citi Bike death came in June 2017, four years after the network launched, when 36-year-old Dan Hanegby was killed by a charter bus driver in Chelsea.
There was a string of injuries among Citi Bike riders on the network’s e-bikes in 2019, the year the company first rolled out an electric option. Some of the injuries were pegged to safety issues with the e-bikes' brakes. Citi Bike quickly pulled all the e-bikes from its fleet and rolled out a new electric model the following year.
"Safety is our top priority and we are reaching out to the victim's family to offer support in the wake of this horrific incident," said Lyft spokesperson Jordan Levine. "We commend NYC's efforts to create safe streets for all to prevent tragedies like this before they happen."
The city's Department of Transportation reports 11 people have died riding bicycles so far in 2023, the highest number of cyclist deaths reported in the city at this point in the year since 2014, when former Mayor de Blasio launched his Vision Zero program with the goal of reducing fatal car crashes.
DOT officials did not immediately provide data on the total number of Citi Bike riders who have died in crashes since 2013. Officials said four of the fatal cyclist crashes in the city this year did not involve another vehicle or bike.
“These are preventable tragedies,” said Danny Harris, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, in a statement. “Mayor [Eric] Adams and [Transportation] Commissioner [Ydanis] Rodriguez must invest in building safe streets, especially on known-dangerous corridors.”
Harris continued, “No parent should have to worry about whether their child will make it home from a bike ride.”
The DOT reported that 252 people died in car crashes last year, the most since Vision Zero was implemented.
Editor's Note: This story was updated to add comment from a Lyft spokesperson.
Tagged
crime
queens
transportation
new york city
Bahar Ostadan
Bahar Ostadan covers the NYPD and public safety. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or message Bahar on Signal at 646-740-7335.
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