A 57-year-old bicyclist was fatally struck by an MTA bus driver in the Bronx, police said Thursday.
The victim was pedaling east on E. 149th St. alongside the bus when the MTA driver turned left onto Brook Ave., striking the bicyclist, about 10:45 p.m. Tuesday, cops said.
The bicyclist died at the scene. His name was not immediately released.
The 35-year-old bus driver stayed at the scene. No charges were immediately filed as police continue their investigation.
Tuesday’s fatal crash occurred a block away from where 26-year-old Jose Angel Victoriano was killed while riding a bike in 2022, bicycling advocates said.
There are no protected east-west bike lanes in the South Bronx, making pedaling through the borough dangerous for bicyclists. “Ghost bikes” — memorials for bicyclists who have died in crashes — can be found all along E. 149th St., longtime Bronx activist Kevin Daloia said in a statement.
“There’s a ghost bike on 149th and Saint Ann’s, 149th and Brook, Brook and 141st, and it looks like there’s another one needed at Brook and 149th,” Daloia said. “I’ve personally installed a dozen ghost bikes with a mile of this spot alone. This is a crisis — and the Bronx deserves better from its leaders.”
Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas said more needs to be done in the Bronx to protect bike riders.
“Bus drivers in the five boroughs face impossible conditions, and they need protected bus lanes, boarding islands, and re-timed lights. Bike riders have no safe way to travel in the South Bronx, where they’ve been abandoned without a safe east-west connection,” Furnas said. “Designing streets without infrastructure for bikes forces giant buses with limited visibility to share space with vulnerable people on bikes — it’s a dangerous, and too often, deadly, combination.”