E-Bikes v. Pedestrians on the Streets of New York

The Blame Game

On Saturday April 17th, 2021, 71-year-old Hing Chung, manager of a Dim Sum restaurant at the corner of West 78th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan, was tragically killed after getting struck by an E-bike.
Mr. Chung represented the fourth pedestrian killed by E-bikes since 2014 and is part of a troubling trend so far this year. Between January 1st and April 28th, there were 41 pedestrian deaths in New York City compared to only 26 deaths last year, an increase of almost sixty percent (60%); and significantly higher than the number of deaths reported in 2018 and 2019.
In this episode of The Blame Game, we try to answer the question of Who’s to Blame? for Mr. Chung’s tragic death. Because if you read the comments that have been posted about this crash online, such as on websites for newspapers that have covered the story, you’ll quickly understand that New Yorkers have very strong opinions about bicyclists and especially crashes between bicyclists and pedestrians.

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