E-Bike Rider Killed by Hit-and-Run Driver in Brooklyn

A hit-and-run driver fatally struck an e-bike rider in Brooklyn late on Saturday, and if history is any guide, the killer will never be caught or held accountable.

According to the NYPD, Babacar Dia, 44, of the Bronx, was riding his electric bike eastbound on Linden Boulevard at around 10:30 p.m. when he was struck by the driver of a dark sedan traveling northbound on Snediker Avenue in the New Lots section. It is unclear if Dia was in the service lane or the main three-lane speedway of Linden Boulevard.

Dia, who shares his name with a legendary Senegalese basketball star from the 1960s, was found with severe body trauma, cops said, and was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he died. The driver fled and was not immediately found, police said.

It's likely he or she will not be apprehended. In 2020, police said they only caught 0.8 percent of the perpetrators of the 39,299 hit-and-run crashes in the city that year. There were 27 hit-and-run crashes on Linden Boulevard that year — two at the intersection in question — and none was solved.

In the entire 75th Precinct, there were 1,635 hit-and-run crashes in 2020. Only eight — or 0.4 percent — resulted in an arrest. In 2019, there were 1,743 hit-and-run crashes in the same command, and cops arrested 12 people, or just 0.6 percent.

Linden Boulevard is a dangerous stretch of roadway, mostly because of its three-lane design and one-lane service road. In 2019, the last calendar year not partially affected by the different traffic patterns of Covid-19, there were 234 reported crashes on just the nine-block stretch between Van Sinderen and Pennsylvania avenues, injuring two cyclists, six pedestrians and 84 motorists.

At the intersection of Snediker, there have been 39 crashes since January 2019, roughly one a month, injuring two pedestrians and 18 drivers.

Saturday night's death comes as Mayor de Blasio's Vision Zero initiative is under fire in its eighth year, which is on pace to be the most deadly of the mayor's two terms.