Cyclist struck and killed by cement truck in Bushwick

July 1, 2019 Noah Goldberg

Ghost bikes across the city mark the sites where cyclists have been killed. Eagle file photo by Todd Maisel

Share this:

More cyclists have been killed in Brooklyn so far this year than were killed citywide in all of 2018.

Devra Freelander, 28, was struck and killed while riding her bike in Bushwick on Monday afternoon, cops said, making her the 11th rider killed in Brooklyn already this year and the 15th killed citywide.

Freelander, an artist, was riding her bike north on Bushwick Avenue when she was hit by a cement truck driven by a 70-year-old man that was going east on Boerum Street. She died at the scene, and police said no criminality was suspected in the crash.

The investigation by the NYPD’s Collision Investigation Squad is ongoing.

Freelander’s death comes amid a spike in cyclist deaths in 2019. While 10 riders were killed across New York City in all of 2018, 15 have been struck and killed so far this year, leading safe street activists and some politicians to call on the city to create more protected bike lanes citywide.

A Brownsville man named Ernest Askew was struck and killed on Thursday. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and other elected officials will hold a vigil for Askew on Monday evening, where they will speak about the fact that Brownsville has no protected bike lanes.

Bushwick is also low on protected bike lanes, with only one that extends just a few blocks on Knickerbocker Avenue.

Update (July 2) — This article has been updated with the name of the deceased.