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Killed on bike
Cops say messenger was struck by opening truck door as he tried to dart between
two vehicles in midtown
Newsday, November 19, 2004
By Daryl Khan and Joshua Robin
A bike messenger was killed yesterday morning when he fell headfirst from
his bike in midtown after a deliveryman opened a truck door and knocked him
down, police said.
But officials from the truck company blamed the accident on a police van
they say hit the cyclist and threw him into the truck.
At 10:45 a.m., the messenger, Dell Covington, 42, of Woodhaven, was
riding north on Eighth Avenue near 49th Street. He tried to negotiate a narrow
space between a double-parked delivery truck and a police prisoner transport
van while holding a cup of tea in one hand and a large muffin in the other,
police sources said.
That's when he slammed into a door opened by one of the deliverymen in the
truck, according to the police account.
It's a phenomenon known to bike messengers as "dooring," an unfortunate and
common - but not usually fatal - part of life while knifing through the city
on a bike.
After the accident, the tea and muffin lay on the street beside him. The
cyclist was the 14th killed in the city this year.
While police blamed the death on the truck's door, an official from the Vesuvio
Foods Co., the company that owns the truck, said his driver says the police
van hit the cyclist.
Steve Manning, a Vesuvio vice president, said his drivers did not open the
door until after they heard a thump on the side of the truck.
They looked out and saw Covington lying in the street, blood pouring from
his head, he said.
"His door was shut," Manning said, speaking from his office in Edison, N.J.
"He heard an impact on his door - a bang, a clang, a crash. He opened the
door and he found a bent up bicycle and a bicyclist lying in the street."
According to his driver and his helper, it was the police van moving at a
high rate of speed that threw the cyclist into the door.
Manning said Vesuvio would continue to investigate.
A police official said that after a thorough investigation by both the Accident
Investigation Squad and Internal Affairs, police discovered fresh marks on
the truck's passenger door consistent with the dead cyclist's bike.
"They went over the PD vehicle and there were no fresh marks on it whatsoever,"
the official said. "I am confident in the investigation, it was thorough.
It appears to be an unfortunate accident caused by the door of the delivery
truck."
The cyclist was not wearing a helmet.
After three hours of questioning, the police let the drivers make their delivery
of Pellegrino water, eggs, oil and vinegar to Ciro Trattoria, a nearby restaurant.
Police did not issue a summons for double parking, but did issue a ticket
for a slash in one of the trucks tires. The ticket will be squashed if the
tire is repaired in 48 hours.
In the wake of the accident, more than a dozen messengers stopped to bear
witness to the loss of one of their own.
"It's a tight-knit community," Ken Stanek said. "Even though no one really
knows this guy it still affects all of us because that could be any one of
us."
"They just don't care," said bike messenger Robert Brennon, 32, of the cars
and trucks in the city. "It's a dangerous job, man."
Rules of the road
Here's what state laws say about who has the right-of-way when bikes and
cars meet:
IF YOU'RE IN A CAR
Open parked car doors only when they won't interfere with the movement of
other traffic, including bicycles.
Exit running cars, such as taxis, only on the side out of traffic
When crossing a bike lane, whether to turn or seek parking place, yield to
bike traffic
IF YOU'RE ON A BIKE
Do not carry anything that prevents you from keeping at least one hand upon
the handle bars
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