UPDATED: Hit-and-Run Dump Truck Driver Kills Cyclist On 34th Street in Midtown; No Charges
A hit-and-run dump truck driver struck and killed a cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown on Monday, according to preliminary reports.
The cyclist and driver were both traveling west on 34th Street when the driver struck the cyclist at 10:51 a.m. near the Macy’s in Herald Square and across the street from Primark, NYPD said. The cyclist died at the scene as the dump truck driver fled, according to the police.
The cyclist, who was on a JOCO e-bike, a model commonly used by delivery workers, and the dump truck driver have not yet been identified. A witness, Angel Suarez, told Streetsblog that the dead cyclist was a delivery worker who had a full bag heading out for a run. Police originally identified the victim as a teenage, but later revealed that the victim was a 51-year-old woman who suffered severe head trauma.
“No arrests have been made and the investigation remains ongoing,” said a spokesperson for the NYPD.
Hours later, the truck, which belongs to Metropolitan Trucking Group in Morristown N.J., was found nearby on W. 35th Street near Fifth Avenue. The New Jersey license plate on the truck was connected to a single speed-camera violation, back in August. (That ticket remains unpaid.)
Police interviewed the driver on that scene, but did not charge him. He later drove off, in the passenger seat of the truck, when another driver from the company arrived to drive away with the truck. A cop said the driver claimed he did not know he had hit anyone, a common refrain from truck drivers.
The vehicle did not appear to have safety underguards which are required by city law — though half of waste-removal trucks are exempt from that safety requirement, as Streetsblog has reported. Earlier this month, a truck that lacked proper underguards struck and killed a teenager on a Citi Bike. (We reached out to the Business Integrity Commission, but the agency said the truck in question was not hauling waste and is therefore not regulated by the agency; we have expanded our search for information and will update this story if we hear back.)
Last year, the Department of Transportation under then-Mayor Eric Adams proposed turning 34th Street into a dedicated busway, noting that crashes dropped by 42-percent when a similar plan was implemented on 14th Street.
The city stopped work on the much-anticipated busway after the Trump administration threatened to cut funding for other projects by claiming that 34th Street was a route on the National Highway System.
Mayor Mamdani recommitted to the project earlier this summer, but implementation has yet to begin; DOT recently told the Times work would begin “in the coming weeks,” without further details.
Meanwhile, injuries and deaths continue to pile up on 34th Street: Three cyclists have been struck and injured since January on the street near Herald Square, according to city data.
“There’s no bike lane, so this kind of thing can happen again,” said Castro Sandoval, who came upon the scene as he walked to a job interview. “And this has happened before and will happen again. It’s dangerous. I used to ride a bike and I heard about stuff like this and I said, ‘There’s no point.'”
In a statement, Transportation Alternatives also pointed out that there is no cycling infrastructure to make 34th Street safe for cross-town cyclists, even though the roadway has been designated a Vision Zero Priority Corridor since 2015.
Ten people have been killed while riding their bikes in Manhattan so far this year, more than in any full year since Vision Zero began, and more than double the average, the group added.
Executive Director Ben Furnas used that fact to focus attention on Wednesday’s City Council hearing that was called by Council Speaker Julie Menin specifically to rein in electric bikes, whose riders have not killed anyone this year.
“In just two days, the City Council will hold a hearing on e-bikes. During such a deadly year, it would make sense to hold a hearing on bikes and bike safety — but we must be clear about the risks and the dangers,” Furnas said. “Seventeen New Yorkers on e-bikes have been killed on our streets so far this year, and our city’s leaders should be doing everything in their power to ensure safety on our streets.”
That said, 2026 is turning into a fairly normal year for road fatalities in the Vision Zero injuries. Through Sept. 27, 149 people have been killed in crashes this year, down from 160 over the same period last year, and 191, 191 and 194 in the three years before that, according to the Department of Transportation.
Vision Zero, however, aims to reduce road deaths to the number of its title.
And crashes remain a constant threat to life, limb and property. According to the NYPD, through Sept. 20, there were 59,766 reported crashes in New York City, down 2 percent from last year. But that statistic reflects an average of 227 reported crashes in the city every single day.
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