Carlos Martínez, a man of 53 years old, died while riding his bicycle and was run over by a truck in The Bronx, months after surviving a stabbing by a neighbor in Harlem.
His bereaved family reported that shortly before 1 pm on Thursday, Martinez was biking down Bruckner Blvd. near E. 115th St. in the Mott Haven neighborhood when he apparently fell off his bike just as a tow truck carrying a truck passed by big damaged. He died at Lincoln Hospital a short time later, the NYPD said.
“We were supposed to grow old together. It’s not fair. He was not sick, he was a healthy man”
Sandra Suro, widow of Carlos Martínez
Martinez worked in Hunts Point, where he biked from his home in Harlem. On December 3, he had been stabbed during a fight with a neighbor in his residential building on East 115th St. La New York police confirmed that his neighbor Frank Chiclana was arrested for assault and criminal possession of a weapon and a protection order was issued. The case is still pending.
“he Survived a lot. That man was strong, ”said his widow Sandra Suro to the Daily News as she burst into tears. “He survived and for this to happen… I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be planning a funeral for my husband. We were supposed to grow old together. It’s not fair. He was not sick, he was a healthy man.”
Martinez apparently fell to the left of him while he was riding his bicycle on a large steel plate in the street, which is under construction for work from ConEdison. The cyclist fell under the front wheels of a black truck that was being towed and his bicycle also ended up under the truck and was destroyed.
Suro said that her husband was an experienced cyclist and that the work of Con Edison building on Bruckner Blvd. must have played a role in his death.
Earlier that same day, a baby barely 20 months was killed by a female driver while walking hand in hand with her mother on a quiet street in Staten Island.
In addition to armed violence, traffic accidents are another great challenge for the new mayor, Eric Adams, after a fatal legacy from his predecessor, Bill De Blasio. New York City has seen a 35% increase in traffic accidents so far this year , indicated NYPD in mid-April. At the end of that month there was a tragic streak in NYC at an average of one person killed by a run over every day.