Woman Moped Rider Hit by Truck Driver in Williamsburg Dies

The 24-year-old moped rider who was critically injured on Meeker Avenue by a truck driver last week has died of her injuries, police said.

According to the NYPD, Molly Pearson, a resident of Greenwich Village, had been traveling on Meeker Avenue, a dangerous speedway, at around 11:15 a.m. on Nov. 2 when she was struck by the driver of a “white box truck” as he attempted to make a right turn onto Skillman Avenue.

“The collision caused the 24-year-old female to be ejected from the scooter [sic] and fall onto the roadway where the box truck ran over her body,” cops said in a statement.

Pearson was taken to Bellevue Hospital with severe injuries to her lower extremities, but died on Saturday.

The 33-year-old truck driver had remained on the scene and was not charged, but, as police always say, “the investigation is ongoing.”

The crash was initially reported last week by the New York Post, whose pictures made it clear that Pearson was on a Lime moped, not a “scooter,” as police said. The NYPD often mistakes scooters for mopeds, as Streetsblog reported in its recent “Field Guide to Micro Mobility.”

Meeker Avenue is a notoriously dangerous roadway that runs under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway more or less between the Kosciuszko and the Williamsburg bridges. The city is currently undertaking a massive safety reconstruction project that will benefit cyclists and possibly reduce speeding along the roadway, which is a key conduit for truck drivers.

In the one-mile stretch of Meeker Avenue between the Kosciuszko Bridge and Metropolitan Avenue, there have been 107 reported crashes resulting in injuries to two cyclists, four pedestrians and 41 drivers and the death of one moped rider and one motorist.