Cops: Bicyclist struck, killed in Holtsville
Suffolk County police work at the scene on North Ocean Avenue in Holtsville where a box truck struck and killed a bicyclist Friday night. Credit: Victor Alcorn
A 41-year-old bicyclist from Medford was struck and killed by a box truck being driven by a 57-year-old man Friday night in Holtsville, according to Suffolk County police.
The crash happened about 8 p.m. on North Ocean Avenue near Fish Road, according to a police news release.
The bicyclist was Rafael Mendez Torres, 41; the truck, a 2006 Ford E-350 driven by a man, 57, was traveling south, police said.
The bicyclist was traveling north in the turn lane when he turned toward the left and into the truck, whose driver tried to avoid the cyclist, according to Det. Sgt. Raymond Alvarez of the Suffolk Police 5th Detective Squad. The driver's side mirror appears to have struck the bicyclist in the head, Alvarez said.
"It kind of whips him around into the truck," said Alvarez, who said his conclusions are based on tire tracks and accounts of the driver and his passenger.
Alvarez said no one was criminally charged or ticketed.
Photographs from the scene show a box truck from a company in Mastic Beach stopped askew on the shoulder, and a blue and black, mangled bicycle. A call to the company listed on the truck door was not immediately returned late Friday night.
Voicemail left Saturday with the driver and the kin of Mendez Torres were not returned.
According to the most recent annual figures, in 2019, bicyclists were struck at least 326 times in Suffolk by drivers of motor vehicles, four of which killed someone, and 301 caused personal injuries, according to the database of the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research at the University at Albany. The year before, the institute reported, there were 302 such crashes in Suffolk, involving seven deaths and 283 injuries.
In Nassau County, there were 289 such crashes, involving seven deaths and 262 injuries in 2019, according to the database, and the year before, there were 304 such crashes with three deaths and 284 injuries.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
What local police departments do to combat the problem Suffolk created a street takeover task force in 2024 that has broken up more than 100 incidents in the county.
What local police departments do to combat the problem Suffolk created a street takeover task force in 2024 that has broken up more than 100 incidents in the county.
