E-Moto Rider Killed on Centre Street in Heart of Civic Manhattan
The rider of an illegal motor bike was killed on Wednesday morning on Centre Street in Lower Manhattan outside of the protected bike lane that conveys cyclists northbound from the Brooklyn Bridge path.
A reporter on the scene found the rider of a Deepower e-moto — an illegal electric bike weighing 103 pounds and carrying a 1,500-watt motor — lying just north of Chambers Street in the roadway surrounded by an enormous pool of blood.
The car involved in the crash was a bit further up the road. The driver was being interviewed by police. The record on the car includes three speed-camera tickets since 2024.
It is unclear why the e-motor rider was outside of the bike lane — though it is illegal for such vehicles to use city bike lanes. The segment of Centre Street north of Chambers, where the driver and e-moto rider were sharing space, is exceptionally narrow and is often filled with parked cars, narrowing the space further.
But there were no illegally parked cars at the scene of the crash on Wednesday.
The Deepower e-moto is marketed as “legal,” but it has a 30 mph top speed, which is not legal.
“Feel the rush, legally,” the company website states.
According to the NYPD, 16 motorcyclists have been killed in crashes this year, up from 10 over the same period last year.
This is a developing story. Please check back.
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