By West Side Rag
A cyclist and a pedestrian collided near a crosswalk in Central Park on Monday evening.
The collision took place around 5 p.m. along West Drive near the Delacorte Theater at around West 80th Street, according to West Side Rag contributor, Sam Gross, who was in the park and saw the immediate aftermath of the incident, and Tom Nemec, who also witnessed the collision and emailed West Side Rag.
The pedestrian, who was a woman, was bleeding profusely from her head, but was conscious, according to Gross. A group of people rushed to help her as onlookers called an ambulance.
“Her face was covered in blood,” Gross said.
The cyclist, who was also being helped by a group of bystanders and park staff, was injured as well and bleeding from his arms and legs, Gross added.
While it was unclear exactly when an ambulance was called, both Gross and Nemec noted the amount of time it took for emergency services to reach the scene. Bystanders said the incident happened at 5:08 p.m. The first ambulance reached the scene at 5:25 p.m.
Both the pedestrian and the cyclist were eventually transported out of the park by the ambulances.
West Side Rag reached out to both NYPD and FDNY for details about the collision, but neither party had any report matching the description.
Police arrived at one point before the ambulances got to the scene, but only stayed for a moment before driving away, according to eyewitnesses.
It is unclear exactly how the collision happened, but it seems like the pedestrian had just stepped off the crosswalk to make her way across the drive when she was hit, eyewitnesses said.
The Central Park Conservancy did confirm to West Side Rag that two people were injured in the collision and taken to hospitals by ambulances, but was not at liberty to share personal information about those involved.
“Too many people on the Drives are breaking the stated rules of the road, which, as we have seen, can have life-altering consequences,” a spokesperson for the Conservancy said. “This is not acceptable. We maintain profound concerns related to high speeds—especially by e-scooters, e-bikes and non-electric racing bikes—and have long advocated for additional safety measures.”
Those additional safety measures include a 15-mph speed limit in the park, stronger and more consistent enforcement of traffic rules, and better bike infrastructure around the park’s perimeter so commuters and delivery riders don’t have to cut through the park, according to the spokesperson.
The bloody collision on Monday comes around two weeks after a woman who was jogging was struck by an electric bike on West Drive near West 64th Street and placed into a medically induced coma, which West Side Rag was the first to report on. The woman, known as Jean, has since woken up and said her name, according to her niece Brandi Wiltse.
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We obviously have to wait for the official report before we start ascribing blame here. However, I will note that, unlike many other crosswalks in the Park, this one does not have a traffic light. Yet my (extensive) experience with the crosswalk inside the Park at 81st Street (going to the Delacorte Theater), which does have a traffic light, is that, even when the light is against them, bikers zoom right past, ignoring the fact that pedestrians have the light, and thus the right of way.
So as for the general effectiveness of speed limits, and even traffic lights, I can safely say that they are not particularly effective in many cases, and that whether it is pedestrians who don’t look both ways before crossing, or cross against the light, or bikes who ignore lights and/or speed limits, human behavior is (sadly) NOT enforceable.
We obviously have to wait for an official report from whom? The article says the police arrived but only stayed for a moment and left before the ambulance arrived. Do you think they will write an official report? Was such a report written about either of the 2 women hit by bikes a frw weeks ago?
The fact is the police don’t even count the nunber of times there is a bike or ebike vs pedestrian accident.
This happens frequently enough that it’s hardly news despite how distressing it is. There’s almost always an ambulance somewhere in the park dealing with an injured cyclist and/or pedestrian. A dog took out a cyclist not many weeks ago. Like everything in NYC, there’s more demand for space than supply and no good way to manage it that everyone can agree on.
I find the writing in this article very confusing. “It seems like the pedestrian had just stepped off the crosswalk to make her way across the drive when she was hit.” Do you mean the pedestrian “just stepped onto the crosswalk” rather than off? If she was crossing the drive, and the crosswalk spans the drive, then she would step onto the crosswalk to walk across the drive. If there’s a crosswalk there, why would she step off it?
In the picture at the top of the article you can see lots of people standing on a pedestrian path in the park, not the roadway. I believe they mean she had stepped off this path and into the road.
CP Conservancy: “We maintain profound concerns …” While they are sitting in their offices, profoundly concerned, they do absolutely nothing about violations of their own rules by E-vehicles and others. Anyone who feels like it rides on pedestrian paths in the park, lets a dog run unleashed, etc.
This road was safer years ago when it was used by cars. The fact that pedestrians have to worry about getting hit by regular bikes and e-bikes on sidewalks, streets AND in parks is crazy. I don’t understand how the pedestrians of NYC have lost so much respect. More and more of the city is ceded to bikers. I just want to walk. Please.
I’d love to know why the police came, arriving first on the scene, and then left–seemingly without doing anything. (Unfortunately, in other situations over the years here on the UWS when I’ve called the police I’ve had similar results: police not doing anything.)
I saw the accident. The biker was coming down the hill to the north of the accident very fast, and looked like he may have been too close to the sidewalk. He suddenly crashed and began to stand, but only when I walked over could I see that there was someone under him. It was hard to tell if it was a man or woman, with very dark hair. and blood coming profusely from the wound in her head. The angle of her body, with her feet pointing north, suggested that she had been watching out for bikes when she stepped off the curb, but the biker was going very fast. As there were a lot of people helping and trying get emergency services, I left. I was sitting at 81st and CPW when a Fire Dept. emergency vehicle entered. By then it must have been at least 20 minutes since she was hit, but another ER may already have come.
Start ticketing cyclists again. Over the speed limit? Ticket. Go through a light? Ticket. Don’t yield for pedestrians? Ticket.
I’m tired of it.
The cyclists are taking out squirrels and continuing on as if nothing happened leaving them injured, in pain and scared. The parks department does not have jurisdiction to help so their only hope is a Good Samaritan picking them up and taking them to a vet.