New York City is reeling from a deadly week for cyclists, with three riders killed in separate crashes across the boroughs, prompting anguished calls for justice from victims' friends and families.
The most recent victim, 40-year-old Mamadou Diallo, was struck and left in the street in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn, near East 54th Street and Avenue I. A witness account described people approaching him as he lay in the road, only to pick him up and then leave the scene.
Diallo was the third cyclist killed in the city this week. Speaking to Eyewitness News, his friend pleaded for accountability, saying simply, I need justice for Mamadou.
On Tuesday, a 51-year-old father of five was killed while riding his bike home from work in the Bronx. Police say the driver blew through a red light before striking him.
Also on Tuesday, a 29-year-old woman was run over by a pickup truck while she was stopped on her e-bike at Jamaica Avenue and Cypress Hills Street. The crashes left the victims dead within days of one another.
The deaths have shaken the city's large community of delivery riders, many of whom depend on bicycles and e-bikes to earn a living. One delivery cyclist, Abdullah, said that making a living on a delivery bike now feels like a gamble with his life.
The cluster of fatalities in a single week has intensified concern over street safety for cyclists in New York, where riders share increasingly crowded roads with cars and trucks, and where those who flee the scene can leave victims without immediate help.