An e-bike rider was killed in the Bronx Wednesday after being crushed by a hit-and-run dump truck driver, the city’s second such victim in less than a week.
Mariano Leonardo Victoriano, a 30-year-old Longwood resident, was riding an e-bike southbound in the Tiffany Street bike lane, near the intersection with Barry Street, in Hunts Point at around 5:30 a.m. Aug. 9. He was riding in the same direction as a Kenworth dump truck that was traveling southbound on Tiffany Street.
Police say the dump truck struck Victoriano while making a right turn onto Barry Street, knocking the cyclist to the ground and crushing him under the truck’s massive tires. The dump truck driver fled the scene, continuing westbound on Barry Street.
A police spokesperson said cops were able to identify and locate the dump truck and driver from witness descriptions, but the operator has not been slapped with any charges nor been arrested.
Victoriano was taken by EMS to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Victoriano is the second New Yorker in less than a week killed in a hit-and-run with a dump truck. On Aug. 4, 75-year-old Yelena Gervolskaya was fatally struck by a Mack dump truck while crossing the street in Coney Island; she was subsequently run over again by the driver of an SUV. Both drivers fled the scene.
Thirteen people have been injured in the past decade in collisions at the same Hunts Point intersection, which is part of the city’s truck route and is near the Bruckner Expressway and the Hunts Point Cooperative Market, the world’s largest food distribution center. The injured include nine motorists, three pedestrians, and one cyclist, plus Victoriano.
So far this year, 140 people have died in traffic collisions in the five boroughs, about 10% fewer than this point last year. But 2023 has been deadly for cyclists, with 21 bike riders losing their lives in crashes so far this year, the largest number in more than a decade.
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