Bid to Find Hit-and-Run Biker Who Slammed into Another Biker During Summer Streets

It was Aug. 16, the final weekend of the popular Summer Streets program that the Department of Transportation was staging. One 35-year-old woman was enjoying the day pedaling southbound on Lafayette Street, about 15 feet past the Astor Place Cube, when a distracted young woman on a gray Citibike, talking on her phone, slammed into the victim from behind.

The rider on the bike that was struck was catapulted off her bike and hit the pavement hard and was later found to have a dislocated shoulder.

Now a social media campaign is underway on the subreddit r/NYCbike to track down the culprit.

Here’s what happened at around 11 that morning, according to Reddit poster “passthebreadbasket,” who said they witnessed the incident: “A woman on a gray Lyft/Citibike e-bike, distracted and talking on the phone, slammed into another cyclist from behind. The victim was thrown to the ground, landing hard on her elbow.

“Instead of stopping, the rider ended her call saying, ‘Sorry, I gotta go, I just crashed into a biker,’ then fled the scene. She never checked if the other cyclist was okay.”

The poster continued: “The injured cyclist was unable to move, required an ambulance, and was later diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder. Her bike was also damaged.”

Summer Streets, the popular program that closes city streets to vehicular traffic, this year featured a 14-mile stretch from City Hall to Inwood. The number of people enjoying Summer Streets is in the hundreds of thousands, and the DOT said, “This is the only serious injury that has been reported this year. The individual was promptly treated on site,” adding that EMTs and medical staff are stationed along the route, including mobile teams on bikes and at rest stops.

While it is a common complaint that many incidents involving bikes get unreported, in this case there is a police record, although because the Citibike that hit the victim was a motorized e-bike, the NYPD classified it as a “motor vehicle.”

According to an NYPD spokesperson, “Police responded to a motor vehicle collision involving a bicyclist struck in the vicinity of Lafayette Street and Astor Place, within the confines of the 9th Precinct.

“An unknown female operating a gray e-bike, struck the rear of her bicycle and then fled the scene before exchanging information.

“The cyclist suffered an injury to her right shoulder and was transported by EMS to Lenox Hill Hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.”

The Good Samaritan who helped the injured biker is “urgently looking for anyone who may have: video footage (dashcams, security, phone, CitiBike station cams, etc.); information about the rider; tips on how to pull GPS data from Lyft/Citibike rides.”

The poster did say that the NYPD was summoned and a report was filed. Other Reddit posters offered that it would be difficult to get info from Lyft/Citibike.

“If it’s an e-bike, Citibike will have detailed location tracking on all of its bikes,” offered Professional-Risk526. “You will probably need a lawyer or similar to draft a letter to them to get the information, but they know which of their bikes were in the area at that time. The problem may be that so many bikes were along the same path at the same time.”

Responded another subreddit poster who goes by TsukimiUsagi: “[ORIGINAL POSTER] is not getting this information without legal intervention. Citibike refuses to provide accident victims with this information, I don’t know why. eta: Citibike shouldn’t provide this information to just anyone, but if someone has a copy of their police report Citibike’s refusal to provide contact information is maddening.”

The poster continued: “My guess is that they don’t trust their GPS tracking enough—the consequences for providing the wrong rider’s information would be steep—but they could at least say if that’s the issue.”

Many users expressed anger toward the hit-and-run biker. A poster who goes by lenolalatte ridiculed the culprit’s line: “Sorry, I gotta go, I just crashed into a biker“ and posted what the real meaning may have been: “Sorry, I gotta run away because I’m a terrible human being. Hope she gets caught!”

The FDNY had not returned our emails by press time. A DOT spokesperson said last year there were more than 500,000 attendees at Summer Streets across the city. “We expect the total to be higher this year with the significant expansion of the route in Manhattan.”

According to the NYPD, “There is no arrest at this time, and the investigation remains ongoing.”