BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | A week after being hit by a box truck while bicycling at E. Ninth St. and First Ave., a 31-year-old Lower East Side woman has died of her injuries, police reported on Wed., April 12.
According to the Daily News, Kelly Hurley died on Tues., April 11.
Hurley, who lived on Orchard St., was riding northbound in the First Ave. bike lane on Wed., April 5, around 7:20 a.m. She was hit there by the truck, which had also been traveling north, as it turned left into a so-called “mixing zone,” where cyclists and motorists share space.
Intersections at larger streets, like 14th and 23rd Sts., have “split-phase signals,” where separate traffic lights are timed differently for bikes and cars, to prevent left-turning vehicles from coming into contact with riders in bike lanes.
Hurley suffered severe head and body trauma and an injury to her left leg, according to police. She was transferred by E.M.S. to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition.
The News reported that she skidded to try to avoid the truck, but it slammed into her, police said.
The truck driver, 59, remained at the scene, and no arrest has been reported, though the investigation is ongoing.
Hurley was a senior studio manager of training and development at SoulCycle in New York, and oversaw the fitness company’s assistant manager training program, according to her LinkedIn page. She had been a SoulCycle studio manager for four years, and worked at the chain’s NoMad branch, at 12 W. 27th St., in the Flatiron District.
An avid cyclist, Hurley enjoyed riding around New York City’s streets, and looks like she may have ridden a fixed-gear — or one-speed — bicycle. She also liked to have a good time and hang out with friends, and her social-media pages are full of smiling photos of her sharing happy times with pals.
She attended California Polytechnic University, in San Luis Obispo, receiving a B.S. in business.
Hurley was also a co-founder and vice president of the Movemeant Foundation, which helps girls and women counter society’s unrealistic messages about super-thin body image by building self-esteem through physical movement and exercise.
A description on the nonprofit group’s Web page says, “We empower women and girls by providing body-positive, self-confidence building tools, resources and experiences where fitness and physical movement is the gateway to her feeling powerful in the skin she’s in. We create opportunities where success on basketball courts, dance floors and yoga mats leads to success in academic performance; in the birth of teamwork and community; and in the creation of healthy habits that will further a girl’s physical and emotional well-being for the rest of her life.”
