EAST WILLIAMSBURG — Police are investigating why a dump truck driver was illegally traveling on Bushwick Avenue when he ran over and critically injured a cyclist on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
The driver, Charles Carpenter, 23, whose license was suspended at the time of the accident, was turning right onto Grand Street from Bushwick Avenue about 2:30 p.m. when he struck the 31-year-old biker, police said.
While Grand Street is an east-west truck route, commercial trucks are not supposed to drive on Bushwick Avenue, unless they're making local deliveries, according to the Deputy Inspector William Gardner, the commanding officer of the 90th Precinct.
Carpenter, who was was driving a yellow dump truck owned by L&Y Enterprises, LLC, was arrested at the scene for driving with a suspended license, Gardner said.
There are two approved north-south routes in East Williamsburg — Union Avenue and Morgan Avenue — according to the city's interactive truck route map.
The intersection where the crash occurred is a busy corner with an L train station, two bus stops, and the Grand Street Campus High School where hundreds of students come and go each day.
Workers at L&Y Enterprises didn't return a request for comment immediately. The New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles couldn't immediately provide information on why Carpenter's license was suspended.
The cyclist's legs were run over by the truck, according to police at the scene, and he was expected to survive the crash, according to man's roommate John Miller, 32, who visited with him in the hospital late Tuesday evening.
For more than a year, transportation advocates have been pushing for a redesign of Grand Street to make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
Three people have died on the street since 2016 — pedestrians Dominica Gonzalez, 71 and Rafael Neives, 85, and 35-year-old cyclist Matthew von Ohlen.
In the wake of the fatalities, the city's Department of Transportation promised to come up with a "safety action plan" for the street by the spring of 2017, DNAinfo reported. No plan has yet been released.
Tuesday's crash reinvigorated calls for the city to come up with a plan.
CB1 & @CMReynoso34 asked for #GrandSt plan over a year ago after 3 crash fatalities. Where is it @NYC_DOT? @transalt @StephenLevin33 https://t.co/idcrhF0MZj
— Luke Ohlson (@ohlukeson) October 3, 2017
The Department of Transportation didn't return a request for comment immediately.
