Motorized Scooter crash on Queensboro Bridge leaves 2 dead🤯
We reported on this on MAY 28 but are now reposting it with video of the scene to show you how dangerous these “toys” are and when your kid crosses route 9 or ocean parkway without looking and without a helmet…….
Police say a New Jersey man operating an allegedly illegal motorized scooter veered into the oncoming bike lane on the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge just before a May 28 crash that killed him and a Long Island City cyclist.
An NYPD spokesperson said a 911 call reporting the crash came in at 8:21 a.m. The collision occurred on the north outer roadway, which consists of two one-way bicycle lanes, within the 108th Precinct.
Police said Francis Delvalle, 39, of Paramus, N.J., was traveling west toward Manhattan on a Teverun Blade GT stand-up scooter, which multiple sources told the Chronicle is illegal to operate in New York City.
The preliminary investigation found that the scooter struck a bicycle ridden by Dmytro Stechenko, 35, of Purves Street, who was heading into Queens. EMS transported both men to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens in Flushing, where they were pronounced dead.
In a joint statement last Thursday, Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas and Families for Safe Streets member Roz Gianutsos called for passage of City Council Intro. 244, sponsored by Councilmember Crystal Hudson (D-Brooklyn), which would require a 20 mph point-of-sale speed cap on scooters sold in the city.
Furnas called the deaths preventable, saying scooters capable of such speeds do not belong in bike lanes and urging the City Council to advance the “Ride Safe, Ride Right” bill. He said data shows speeds above 20 mph are especially deadly and that “speed kills.”
Gianutsos said no one should endure such loss and warned against electric scooters capable of traveling 30, 40, or 50 mph. She urged the Council to advance Hudson’s bill to protect all New Yorkers.
Photos of the mangled bike and scooter circulated on social media before the deaths were announced. Community Board 6 member and cycling advocate Peter Beadle wrote that the scooter appeared to be one of the illegal stand-up models that travel at extreme speeds and said the damage to the bicycle was “horrendous.”
Jeremy Edwards, deputy press secretary for Mayor Mamdani, called the crash a reminder that illegal high-speed micromobility devices are dangerous and said the administration will continue working to remove them from city streets and bike paths.
State law already bans stand-up e-scooters with top speeds exceeding 20 mph. While Hudson’s bill would apply only to sales in New York City, Transportation Alternatives Communications Director Alexa Sledge said it would also affect online purchases and efforts to buy scooters out of state and bring them into the city. She said retailers could block sales based on a buyer’s address, similar to Massachusetts’ point-of-sale slingshot ban.
Sledge acknowledged that some people could leave the city to buy such devices, but said strict e-bike regulations in New Jersey and different rules elsewhere in New York State would make them harder to obtain.
