Box Truck Hits Cyclist On Park Slope's Fifth Ave: Report

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A cyclist was knocked to the ground by a box truck on Fifth Avenue early Tuesday morning as they tried to ride across the street, video shows.

Surveillance video from a nearby restaurant given to a Brooklyn Paper reporter shows the person, who was riding a Citi Bike, heading north along Fifth Avenue around 7:40 a.m.

The cyclist tries to ride quickly across the avenue, but is hit by a truck that was traveling the opposite direction and knocked off the bike, the footage from Miriam and Milan Optique shows.

The person appears to have been knocked unconscious by the crash, or at least isn't able to immediately get up. At least two people come over and try to communicate with the cyclist as he lies on the ground, seemingly not responding.

Paramedics told the Brooklyn Paper that they brought the cyclist to Methodist Hospital. Police told the paper that the cyclist only had minor injuries.

A spokesman with NYPD would not confirm the crash happened at all when Patch called for details, saying that they don't typically have details of a crash if the cyclist "ends up being okay."

The crash was at least the second Citi Bike rider who was injured this week. On Monday, Patch reported that a woman riding a Citi Bike in Manhattan was t-boned by a taxi on the same block where a 20-year-old cyclist died less than a month ago.

That fatal accident, which killed Robyn Hightman, was one of three within a week's time that sparked outrage among cycling advocates earlier this month. A total of 15 cyclists have lost their lives in New York City so far this year, up from just ten in all of last year.

Most recently, Devra Freelander, a Bushwick artist, was killed by a cement truck riding her bike in Williamsburg. Just a few days before that, Ernest Askew was fatally struck by a teenage driver at the corner of Chester Street and Sutter Avenue in Brownsville.