Effectively, I’m sorry to share miserable information as we head into the weekend, however this one is simply too near house for me to disregard:
This was Thursday morning, at rush hour, on a bridge bike path I’ve described prior to now as a “full shitshow:”
Cops responded at 8:21 a.m. after a 39-year-old man driving a stand-up electrical scooter crashed right into a 35-year-old bike owner. The e-scooter driver was touring westbound, whereas the bike owner was touring eastbound, the police mentioned.
The lads have been dropped at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Queens, the place they have been pronounced lifeless. Pictures taken within the aftermath of the collision present a white bike snapped clear in half, with an orange e-scooter mendacity subsequent to it. The crumpled entrance tire of the bike rests towards the bridge.
The scooter concerned will apparently do over 50mph:
The pictures of the crash website seem to indicate a Teverun Blade GT Swimsuit II+ e-scooter, billed on the corporate’s web site as a “wolf in a go well with” that may attain virtually 53 m.p.h.
“Beneath its smooth, understated design lies immense energy and explosive acceleration,” the corporate’s description reads. “Each twist of the throttle delivers thrilling velocity whereas sustaining easy management, turning your every day experience into a unprecedented expertise.”
And sure, each riders have been carrying helmets:
Someplace I mentioned that should you really feel like you want to put on a full-face helmet then you haven’t any enterprise being in a motorcycle lane, however I can’t bear in mind the place, so I’m going to say it once more, despite the fact that it’s type of gross to take action proper after the particular person has simply died. Sorry.
I most likely haven’t ridden over the Queensboro Bridge (or the 59th Avenue bridge as I normally name it, or the Ed Kotch Bridge as no person calls) since at the least final summer season, since I stay fairly removed from it, although previous to that I used to be utilizing it considerably frequently, since my good friend who died final 12 months lived in Queens and I used to be going backwards and forwards to his place typically. As an everyday person of the bridge he’d typically speak about how unhealthy the bridge had gotten in recent times due to all of the motorized contraptions on it, and holy crap was he proper. The truth is, in recent times the Queensboro Bridge bike path had grow to be infamous, and I’d say it all the time felt like an accident ready to occur, however that’s not correct, as a result of the accidents weren’t ready to occur in any respect–they have been very a lot taking place:
So I wasn’t stunned to study this most up-to-date crash, although the truth that it left each folks lifeless is after all surprising, as is the picture of the mangled bike. I’m pretty sure the Queensboro is the steepest of the East River bridges, so irrespective of the place you’re on the span there’s all the time actually quick head-on site visitors in at the least one course. Earlier than the proliferation of “micromobility” at the least the uphill site visitors can be shifting slowly, however due to motors now the uphill and downhill site visitors can simply be shifting at 20- or 30-plus miles per hour. So welcome to a brand new period of multiple-fatality head-on bike path collisions, I assume.
The opening of the separate pedestrian path on the south facet of the bridge was speculated to mitigate the clusterfuckery of the bike path–and possibly it did, although as somebody who hasn’t ridden over the bridge in like a 12 months I’m not certified to say, and clearly it didn’t forestall this crash:
Plus, irrespective of the place you experience within the metropolis you’ll invariably encounter folks on high-speed electrical contraptions just like the one concerned on this collision–that are already unlawful, although it actually isn’t stopping anyone.
Within the aftermath of this newest collision each the smuggies and the NIMBYs will inform us what town have to do to resolve the issue as soon as and for all, and I suppose there was a time I’d have carried out the identical factor. However now I simply really feel unhappy for a fellow bike owner who didn’t get to complete a experience. Additionally, the zany e-contraptions simply preserve getting quicker, and I simply preserve getting older, and so I really feel extra decided than ever to experience away from town as an alternative of additional into it. Why level my bike that method after I can level it this manner as an alternative?
Hey, I assume I can ignore it in any case…
