A scooter rider is dead and another is laid up in hospital after crashing into a delivery truck parked in a bike lane right outside famed south Brooklyn pizzeria L&B Spumoni Gardens early Thursday morning.
Luis Ramos-Cumez, 20, was riding an e-scooter northbound on 86th Street a little after 4 am Thursday with a 35-year-old passenger when, police say, he crashed into the back of a parked box truck in front of the Azerbaijani restaurant Light of Baku, which is next-door to and shares a parking lot with L&B. The box truck bears the insignia of Thumann’s, a New Jersey-based deli meats supplier.
Responding officers found the Ramos-Cumez on the ground with severe trauma to his head, and the passenger with a head laceration. The younger man, who was operating the scooter, was pronounced dead on the scene, while the elder passenger was transported to NYU Langone-Brooklyn, where he remains in “serious but stable condition.” Cops have not released the name of the passenger.
It’s unclear whether Ramos-Cumez was a delivery worker, but it’s not likely they worked for either restaurant as both were closed at the time of the crash, according to both of their publicly posted hours of operation; a spokesperson for Los Deliveristas Unidos, the delivery workers collective, did not respond to an inquiry on whether Ramos-Cumez was working deliveries.
L&B could not be reached for comment, while a rep for Lights of Baku declined to comment.
Pictures from the scene show the Thumann’s truck partially parked in the unprotected 86th Street bike lane. An NYPD spokesperson said the incident remains under investigation and could not confirm whether the driver of the truck, which the NYPD says was unoccupied at the time of the crash, had been cited for illegal parking. Thumann’s did not respond to a request for comment.
The fatal crash comes as the city has weathered a 44 percent increase in traffic collision deaths on its streets in the first three months of this year compared to last year; 59 people have lost their lives on the streets of the five boroughs so far. That includes a threefold increase of deaths among operators of “other motorized” vehicles, which includes mopeds, e-scooters, and e-bikes without pedals, according to the city’s Department of Transportation.
This story has been updated with the name of the deceased scooter rider.
