Wednesday’s Headlines: Fatal Hit-and-Run Edition
Paulina Tec Choc, the 29-year-old woman killed by a hit-and-run truck driver on Jamaica Avenue in Brooklyn early Tuesday morning, was a daily e-bike commuter who rode the street regularly to get her job at a nearby Sonic Drive-In, her manager told Streetsblog on Tuesday.
“She goes this way every day. She was on her way to work when she got hit,” said Osman Cevallos, 60, of Rockaway, who told Streetsblog he was Tec Choc’s boss at the Sonic.
Tec Choc, whom cops have yet to publicly identify, was riding westbound stopped on Jamaica Avenue at Cypress Hills Street at around 5:45 a.m. when the driver of a white pick-up truck traveling westbound struck her from behind, an NYPD spokesperson told Streetsblog.
The force of the collision sent Tec Choc’s body flying before the driver ran her over and fled north up Cypress Hills Street, according to police.
Cypress Hills Street has a mostly protected bike lane north of Jamaica Avenue, but the rest of the streets that converge at the location of the crash do not.
Cevallos said police told him Pec’s bike was street-legal and had a top speed of 25 miles per hour — the legal limit.
“If there was a [bike] lane, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. It’s a crazy street,” he said. “I drive every day, since 1989 in NYC. It’s devastating. It reminds you, you’ve got to be careful.”
Reporting by Poppy Wilkinson
Update: The story was updated and corrected after NYPD released the victim’s name and additional details of the crash.
In other news:
- E-bike registration’s “fundamental flaw”? Illegal vehicles “by definition cannot be licensed because they’re illegal,” Richard Robbins wrote in a clarion call op-ed calling for sensible e-bike regulation and enforcement in the New York Daily News.
- Mayor Mamdani’s “COGE” wants to cut down on the number of reports city agencies are required to file each year. (The City Reporter)
- Citi Bike broke its one-day record on the last day of Summer Streets. (Transportation Alternatives via X)
- Today is the last day to bid on a Metrocard machine. (Gothamist)
- New York and Connecticut drivers are more likely to speed than the average American driver, a AAA survey found. (News 12, AAA Newsroom)
- The Manhattan Institute wants the City Council to get out of the way of Mayor Mamdani’s pick to run the Board of Standards and Appeals. (City Journal)
- The expected youth “takeover” of Dyckman Street didn’t happen. (amNY)
- A drunk driver with a long vehicular rap sheet allegedly caused a “fiery wreck” involving police cars in Clifton, New Jersey. (ABC7)
- DOT reps told a Staten Island judge they have the power to design bus lanes narrower than the desired standard, as local pols attempt to use width as a cudgel to scrap the agency’s Victory Boulevard redesign. (S.I. Advance)
- Mayor Mamdani is on vacation, but his office dropped a video of him announcing that he “finally” bought a bike helmet. (NY Times)
- An FDNY truck and MTA bus collided in the Bronx, sending 19 people to the hospital. (CBS New York)
- Vornado wants to move the W. 34th Street and Eighth Avenue subway entrance into its proposed tower for the corner. (Crain’s)
- Is a land value tax “the holy grail of urbanism”? (Building Better Cities)
- The Teamsters accused Amazon of union-busting mass layoffs. (The City Reporter)
- And finally, DOT spoke to bus riders at the Aug. 6 Central Brooklyn bus “town hall” in Flatbush:
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