A motorcyclist was hit and killed by a car on Saturday night around 9 p.m. on the West Side Highway around 79th street after smashing into the median, according to police.
The motorcyclist was traveling South on the highway when he hit the center divider, and got thrown into northbound lanes. The man was then hit by a vehicle. Police did not immediately have information about the victim’s identity.
There were major delays on the highway.
Initial reports from emergency officials said that a pedestrian was hit around 72nd street on the highway, and one of our tipsters says this was a separate incident from the motorcycle crash, but the NYPD spokesman said he had not heard of a second incident. We’ll update if we hear more.
Update: Gothamist reports that the man who was hit was 44 and that the driver of the Mazda minivan that hit him was 26. The driver stayed on the scene and no charges had been filed, but the police investigation is continuing.
ABC posted the following photo on twitter:
UPDATE: Motorcyclist dies after crashing into median on Upper West Side https://t.co/rTwbZYug0r pic.twitter.com/mQLhDlPbdi
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) November 30, 2014
Correction: we initially reported incorrectly that this occurred on Friday.
It’s a little past midnight and there is still no northbound traffic north of 72nd st. on the westside highway. Riverside drive is moving at a snail’s pace in both directions. It has been like this since
about 9PM.
1AM update…Southbound on the westside highway is back
to normal, northbound is still nonexistent from72nd st.
The map shows the “Continental Baths” top right. Huh?
Good catch Sean. That is bizarre. The Continental Baths were at the Ansonia, and obviously closed down years ago. WSR
Don’t know what caused this horrible accident however speeders on the West Side Highway are out of control. There is almost never a time when half a dozen idiots don’t shoot past you doing 85mph between the GW and 96th street. There are no shoulders; there is no way to swerve to avoid a bad situation things happen in an instant at those speeds. It seems the police don’t enforce the speed limit because from a realistic standpoint there’s no place to pull anybody over safely.
I would like to know who this was and also the identity of the woman who was run over by a train at 79th St. I understand police don’t like to release identities before notifying next of kin but afterwards it should be reported.
I drive this road both north and south often so I know the precarious spots . There are many lethal potholes especially north side if you are speeding. I hear and see same spot crashes from my window too often,, this one last night is tragic .The city needs to fix this road or whatever highway dept collects taxes to fix it shame on you for ignoring this issue for too long ,too many
accidents.
Pls call 311 to report potholes if you haven’t already!
311 is uselss. The reps read from a script, have no training, and no common sense. I am still waiting for potholes from two years ago to be filled, and West End Ave to be repaved from from 57 Street through 66 Street
Don’t call.
Go to https://www1.nyc.gov/311
(yes, www1)
Much more efficient than the script readers and listening to two minutes of stuff you don’t care about before you are connected to someone.