According to the Suffolk County Police Department, a cyclist was seriously injured in Holtsville Saturday morning while attempting to make a turn when a driver hit him.
The accident happened around 9 a.m. when the cyclist, 41-year-old Thomas Velazquez of Massapequa Park, was traveling north on North Ocean Avenue and attempting to make a left turn north of Jamaica Avenue. The 52-year-old driver of a 2007 northbound Honda Civic then hit him, police said in a press release.
Velazquez – who suffered head trauma, the police department press office said in an email – was flown to Stony Brook University Hospital, the release said.
The driver had the right of way, the email said. The road has two northbound lanes, a middle turning lane and two southbound lanes, the email said. The department did not respond to an inquiry about how fast the driver, who is from Blue Point, was traveling. The driver was traveling north in the left lane off the center lane; The cyclist drove on the hard shoulder “and turned in front of the vehicle,” the email said.
Newsday generally does not name drivers involved in accidents without the police department alleging that the driver committed wrongdoing.
On November 15, at least 519 cyclists were injured and 6 killed in traffic accidents involving motor vehicles on Long Island. In Nassau, 282 were injured and 1 killed; In Suffolk, 237 were injured and 5 killed, according to preliminary figures from the Albany-based Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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