By Lincoln Anderson
A woman riding a bicycle was fatally struck by a school bus at Delancey and Ludlow Sts. late Tuesday afternoon. The cyclist and bus were on the eastbound side of Delancey St. The accident occurred just after 4 p.m., and the woman was declared dead at the scene by responders, police said.
Police did not provide further information about the woman by press time. According to WABC news, authorities said the bus was operated by Atlantic Express.
“No criminality is expected at this time,” a police spokesperson said.
After the accident, the woman’s body and bike were by the curb under a blanket, and the bus was stopped about 50 feet to the east.
Bill di Paolo, director of Time’s Up! — the bicycle advocacy and environmental group, located nearby on Rivington St. — went to the scene after the accident and reported that the victim was an older woman, and that her head had been crushed under one of the bus’s real wheels.
“We’ve been trying to get a bike lane on that street,” di Paolo said.
It wasn’t known if the cyclist had been heading for the Williamsburg Bridge bike path to ride to Brooklyn. The bridge approach ramp is four blocks from the accident scene. While cyclists love the bridge path, Delancey St. with its fast-moving traffic and trucks is frightening and dangerous, they say.
Photographer Clayton Patterson reported that, at first, he thought the old-style school bus looked like the type that Hassidic Jews sometimes drive. But he said the driver was at the scene, and had a Caribbean accent. The driver was just standing there normally, Patterson said.
