Ocean City Native Killed By Truck Was Biking To Her NYC Dream Job

OCEAN CITY, NJ — An Ocean City native who died after a truck driver ran her over in Manhattan last week was going to her "dream job" at Nickelodeon in Times Square.

Carling Mott, 28, died at an Upper East Side hospital on July 26. A tractor-trailer driver, who was going in the same direction, hit her around 10:50 a.m. after she fell off her bicycle for an unknown reason.

Mott was living her dream as a production manager for Nickelodeon, according to her obituary posted by Godfrey Funeral Home.

Mott, a 2012 Ocean City High School graduate, "excelled" in lacrosse, tennis, and competitive sailing. She graduated from Syracuse University in 2016 and was TV director for the university's Citrus TV.

Mott's mother Janice told Streetsblog that her daughter "loved biking to work and felt very safe."

“Carling was a special girl who lit up your life,” she told Streetsblog's Julianne Cuba.

Ocean City's mayor, Jay A. Gillian, sent his condolences to Mott's family in his weekly message.

"She loved Ocean City and her new home in Manhattan and lived life to its fullest," Gillian said.

Mott's celebration of life was Monday. Her family asks that, in lieu of flowers, a donation be made to the NJ Osprey Project at Conservewildlifenj.org or at 2 Preservation Pl, Princeton NJ 08540.

Neighbors opposed bike lane years before

Mott was blocks from her home in the Upper East Side's Yorkville neighborhood when the tractor-trailer hit her, New York City police said. She was biking west along East 85th Street when she and the 2017 Great Dane truck stopped at a red light on Madison Avenue, according to the NYPD.

When the light turned green, Mott fell off her bike and was hit by the truck as the driver began moving forward, police said. Police gave no explanation for why she fell. Related — Woman Killed In UES Truck Crash Identified: Police

No charges have been announced against the truck driver, who stayed at the scene, but an investigation is ongoing by the NYPD's Highway Collision Investigation Squad, police said.

There was no bike lane on the road. Years before Mott was killed, influential locals defeated a plan to install a bike lane on the street.

Opponents included film director Woody Allen, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY-12), and former N.Y. governor Andrew Cuomo's sister Madeline, according to previous reporting from both Patch and Streetsblog.

Allen reportedly objected to the bike lane on East 85th Street because it could not be installed "in a graceful way."

East 85th Street is not among the official truck routes that commercial vehicles are supposed to use in New York City — though nearby East 86th Street is.

The mostly-residential block is also home to Regis High School and Park Avenue Christian Church.

Patch's Nick Garber contributed to this report. His most recent article on Mott's death is here.