Cyclist killed by driver in Sheepshead
BY BEN BRACHFELD
A driver behind the wheel
of an SUV killed a cyclist in
Sheepshead Bay on Oct. 18,
marking the latest death in a
particularly deadly year for
traffi c fatalities.
Cops responded to a report
of a crash at Nostrand Avenue
and Shore Parkway in Sheepshead
Bay at around 5:50 pm,
where they found 55-year-old
Bensonhurst resident Fidel
Trinidad lying in the roadway
with severe bodily trauma.
Police say Trinidad had
been riding a bike southbound
on Nostrand Avenue
when he was struck by a
driver in a green Audi SUV,
which was traveling northbound
on the roadway. The
driver remained on the scene,
and t he NYPD is investigating
the crash.
Paramedics rushed Trinidad
to Coney Island Hospital,
where doctors pronounced
him dead on Monday night.
A search of the driver’s license
plate on How’s My Driving
NY shows the SUV has
racked up 14 school speed
camera violations since May,
The scene where a driver of an Audi SUV struck and killed a cyclist on Oct. 18. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
along with two red light camera
violations.
While this is the fi rst fatal
incident at that intersection
in the past five years, three
other people, all pedestrians,
have been killed in traffic
collisions within a twoblock
COURIER L 12 IFE, OCTOBER 22-28, 2021
radius since 2016, per
NYC Crash Mapper. Those
deceased include Marie Beavers,
64, at Nostrand and
Emmons avenues in 2015;
Iosif Morgenshteyn, 65, at
East 28th St and Shore Parkway
in 2018; and Misa Gorlitskaya,
80, at Haring St and
Voorhies Ave in 2019.
Vision Zero data showed
that drivers have killed 13
cyclists in 2021, as of Sept.
30. Several more cyclists
were killed in October, including
Jose Ramos, 56, who
was killed by a hit-and-run
driver on Oct. 15 on Atlantic
Avenue and Essex Street in
East New York.
Safe streets advocates
Transportation Alternatives
released a report earlier this
month identifying this summer
as the deadliest in terms
of traffi c violence since Mayor
Bill de Blasio took offi ce in
2014. 217 people have died
in traffi c collisions on city
streets so far this year, per
NYPD data, a 17 percent increase
over this point in 2020.