Driver Fatally Strikes Bushwick Cyclist, Hits Cars, Leaves Scene [Updated]

1:59 PM EDT on April 9, 2014

Broadway at Halsey Street in Bushwick. Image: Google Maps

Update: The cyclist has been identified by WNBC as Angel Torres. The driver remained at large Thursday morning.

A driver killed a cyclist in Brooklyn this morning and injured another motorist before fleeing the scene on foot.

The crash occurred at around 8 a.m., when a man driving a BMW sedan hit a man on a bike at the intersection of Broadway and Halsey Street in Bushwick, according to the Post.

“It happened so fast. We saw the man on top of the car and we were like wow,” said a witness, Shante Washington, 24, who works at Dunkin Donuts nearby.
“I was going to throw up. I’ve never seen anything like that, it’s not something that happens every day,” she explained.
“I went outside I seen the guy laying in front of Rite Aid his head was all messed up and they [emergency responders] already started working on him,” she said.

After striking the cyclist, the driver hit a parked car, drove the wrong way down a one-way street and crashed into an SUV, injuring the driver of the second vehicle, the Post and WNBC reported. "He got out of the car walked away, went across the street, then went back to the car grabbed two bags and left," witness Ray McCall told the Post.

The cyclist, 46, died at Woodhull Hospital. NYPD had not released his name as of this writing, and no arrests had been made.

This fatal crash occurred on the border of the 73rd and 83rd Precincts, and in the City Council district represented by Rafael Espinal.

Brad Aaron

Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.

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