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Thomas Bakas, 77, who was riding a stand-up electric scooter, was killed in a head-on crash with a bicyclist in downtown Brooklyn. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\nAn elderly man was fatally thrown off his e-scooter in a head-on collision with a bicyclist outside a Hilton hotel in Downtown Brooklyn on Monday, police said.<\/p>\n
Thomas Bakas, 77, was riding his stand-up electric scooter in the bike lane on Schermerhorn Street near its intersection with Smith Street around 2:20 p.m. when he smashed into the bike rider heading in the opposite direction, authorities said.\u00a0It\u2019s unclear who was going with traffic.<\/p>\n
The cyclist, 47, had been riding outside the designated bike lane and attempting to re-enter it by careening between two parked unoccupied cars when the pair collided, cops siad.<\/p>\n
Thomas Bakas, 77, who was riding a stand-up electric scooter, was killed in a head-on crash with a bicyclist in downtown Brooklyn. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n
The impact caused both men, who were not wearing helmets, to fall to the ground, police said.<\/p>\n
Bakas, who lived just blocks from the scene, was taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey tried very hard to revive him,\u201d a witness said.<\/p>\n
The bicyclist stayed at the scene and was neither hurt nor arrested, cops said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looked a little shaken up,\u201d the witness added. \u201cHe was fully cooperative with police.\u201d<\/p>\n
A photo showed a backpack left behind in the street at the taped-off crash scene outside the hotel.<\/p>\n
The fatal crash comes about a month after\u00a0City Council members pledged to unveil 17 bills\u00a0combating\u00a0dangerous e-bikes\u00a0across the Big Apple.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those measures range\u00a0from banning certain e-bikes to tweaking commercial bicycle safety laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust as we all share the city, we all share the roads and the responsibility to use them responsibly,\u201d\u00a0Council Speaker Julie Menin\u00a0said at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we at the City Council are launching a comprehensive legislative review of e-bike and e-scooter safety in September.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already, let\u2019s be real, have existing laws in place to regulate the use of e-bikes, but it\u2019s vital that they are enforced fully, properly, and effectively. And in light of the latest statistics, we believe that our city agencies can do a better job of ensuring that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The push for increased enforcement came months after Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s March announcement that\u00a0the NYPD would no longer issue criminal summonses to e-bikers and cyclists for traffic offenses,\u00a0such as blowing stop signs or illegally zipping along city sidewalks.<\/p>\n
City Hall officials said those violations would instead\u00a0be handled with civil summonses\u00a0just as motorists are for similar offenses.<\/p>\n
Driving the wrong way would have been a criminal offense for bikers before Mamdani\u2019s order.<\/p>\n
More than 500 collisions involving e-bikes were reported through July\u00a0\u2013 marking a 32% increase from the same point in 2025,\u00a0according to the latest citywide data available.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toward the end of that month,\u00a017-year-old e-bike rider\u00a0Gabriel Nacato\u00a0died when he rammed<\/a> into a moving SUV near City Hall, police said.<\/p>\n Nacato was pedaling northbound on Centre Street near the busy Chambers Street intersection just before 9 a.m. when he veered out of the bike lane and into the vehicular lane, authorities said.<\/p>\n