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Man Killed by MTA Bus in Harlem Is First Cyclist Death This Year: Report

By Jess Wisloski | January 19, 2014 6:12pm
 A bicycle rider was struck and killed in Central Harlem on January 19, 2014, marking the first cycling death of the year.
A bicycle rider was struck and killed in Central Harlem on January 19, 2014, marking the first cycling death of the year.
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HARLEM — The Sunday morning death of an East Harlem man riding his bicycle was the first fatality involving a bicycle for 2014, a report said.

Pedro Santiago, 45, who lived on Lexington Avenue, just blocks from the crash, was struck by a double-sized MTA BX15 city bus as it pulled out of a bus stop on West 125th Street at around 1:26 a.m., officials said.

An investigation revealed that the bus was pulling into eastbound traffic when it collided with Santiago, who was pulled underneath the bus' driver-side front tires near Lenox Avenue, police said.

Witnesses said giant bags were used to lift the bus off Santiago's body, which suffered trauma about the head and torso from the impact, police said and the Daily News reported. He was rushed to Harlem Hospital but declared dead on arrival, police said.

The crash was one in a weekend filled with deaths by automobile, including two fatal collisions with pedestrians in Queens, and another Upper West Side resident's death at the hands of a driver crossing West 96th Street.

Police said there appeared to be no criminality involved, but that an investigation was ongoing, and that it also was thought to be the first bike-related death of the year.