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NYPD Seems to Blame Latest Cyclist Victim for Her Own Death

12:13 AM EST on February 3, 2019

File photo: Gersh Kuntzman

Did cyclist Susan Moses kill herself? That's basically what the NYPD would have you believe.

Police put out a statement Saturday about the death of Moses, 63, earlier in the day from injuries she sustained in a crash on Kings Highway and Van Sicklen Street in Brooklyn at around 6:48 p.m. on Jan. 26.

Here's what the statement said:

An investigation revealed that the 63-year-old female was riding a bicycle and heading southbound on Kings Highway when she collided with a 2018 Toyota SUV, which was also heading southbound on Kings Highway.  The operator of the Toyota remained on scene. There are no arrest and the investigation is ongoing by the Collision Investigation Squad.

The lack of details made the cause of Moses's death unclear: Was she forced into traffic by an illegally parked car on the notoriously narrow stretch filled with scofflaws? Did the driver of the SUV veer into her? We called police headquarters and got only a confused police spokesperson who read back the statement above and repeated, "the bike veered into the car," but declined to provide evidence or any details beyond the statement. He declined to say if the car was overtaking Moses, a common cause of cyclist deaths.

Regular cyclists will find it difficult to believe that Moses caused her own death.

“She biked all the time," her son-in-law Avi Lieberman told the Daily News. "That was her mode of transportation.”

Fifteen cyclists and 43 pedestrians have been injured on the 12 blocks of Kings Highway between Ocean Parkway and West Sixth Street since 2016.

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