Brooklyn cyclist killed by hit and run driver on Atlantic Avenue

A deaf man who was standing next to his bicycle in the median of Atlantic Avenue at the intersection of Essex Street in East New York, Brooklyn, was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Friday night around 10:10 pm.

Hit by a speeding car

56 year old Jose Ramos had just finished a late shift at a store and was heading home with his wife Martha. Jose was walking next to his wife with his bike on his side. As they were crossing Atlantic Avenue at Essex street, they stopped on the median to wait for the light to turn green for the pedestrians. All of sudden a sedan racing down Atlantic Avenue slammed into Jose, causing him major body trauma. His wife Martha who is also deaf, ran home two blocks away, to get someone to call an ambulance. When she came back a few minutes later, the sedan was gone.

An ambulance arrived and took Jose to the hospital but he did not survived his injuries.

The police are still looking for the driver of the sedan.

Not much has been done to calm traffic on the East New York segment of Atlantic Ave

Speeding is quite common on Atlantic Avenue and despite Atlantic Avenue being designated a “Vison Zero corridor” by the de Blasio administration not much has been done to make the East New York section of Atlantic Avenue safer.  The only thing that changed was the implementation of a planted median that serves as flood control for the Long Island Rail Road tunnel that is located beneath Atlantic Avenue.

Back in 2016, Transportation Alternatives published a report that criticized the DOT plan to redesign Atlantic Avenue saying that the redesign would not do much to protect pedestrian lives and that by failing to proprely fix it, it would remain a speedway for motorists. TA was right and pedestrians and cyclists continue to be seriously injured and killed on Atlantic Ave on a regular basis.

Picture of the location of the fatal crash: courtesy of Google Map