fundraiser launched by his loved ones.<\/a><\/p>\nThe impact threw O\u2019Brien to the ground and caused severe head trauma, for which medics rushed him to Weill Cornell Medical Center. He succumbed to his injuries on Sunday, his family said.<\/p>\n
Richie O\u2019Brien, 41, died after being hit by a cyclist while he was walking to work through Central Park on Sept. 23. GoFundMe<\/p>\n
Richie O\u2019Brien, 41, in an undated photo with his family. GoFundMe<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough our hearts are broken by this unimaginable loss, Richie\u2019s legacy will live on,\u201d his family posted on a GoFundMe page.<\/p>\n
Kin described O\u2019Brien as \u201ca proud Local 638 Steamfitter who went to work every day to provide for his family and give his wife, Ronni, and their two daughters, Kylie and Mia, the life they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kylie and Mia are 12 and 8 years old, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien set out for work one last time as cyclists, runners and walkers criss-crossed the still-dim park around 6:30 a.m., family and police said.<\/p>\n
Witness Laura Sackler said the sound of a nearby collision reached her ears as she finished her morning run just behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard the impact and turned around, and tragically, Richie and the cyclist were both on the ground,\u201d she told The Post on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cRichie unfortunately was unconscious from that moment forward and never gained consciousness. He was bleeding,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The cyclist sat up, visibly shaken and confused, and stayed at the scene as a crowd of good Samaritans \u2013 including a doctor \u2014 gathered around to help O\u2019Brien, Sackler recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just in disbelief because he had been part of something. He was like, \u2018I can\u2019t believe this,\u2019\u201d Sackler said. \u201cThat was about it. He just sat there in silence most of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bystanders and pedestrians formed a circle around the bleeding and unconscious O\u2019Brien, but their act of kindness wasn\u2019t appreciated by some on-the-move passersby.<\/p>\n
Richie O\u2019Brien, 41, in an undated photo with his family. GoFundMe<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some aggressive cyclists going by during this tragic moment who were yelling at us to move out of the way because we were in their way causing problems,\u201d Sackler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the issues is that the culture of the cyclists in there, they\u2019re really using it like a trackway. They\u2019re really using it like an area where they\u2019re able to get their training and speed work in around the park,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m an athlete, and I\u2019m a runner, and I have many friends who are cyclists, and I\u2019m a huge advocate for all of us being able to use Central Park \u2014 but there\u2019s serious issues with speed.\u201d<\/p>\n
An ambulance arrived after roughly 20 minutes, Sackler said, declining to into more detail out of respect for O\u2019Brien\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
The cyclist, 32, was treated at the scene and declined an ambulance, according to police, who did not identify him or say whether he would face any charges.<\/p>\n
People are seen cycling in Central Park. Stephen Yang for the New York Post<\/p>\n
The NYPD\u2019s Collision Investigation Squad was reviewing the case.<\/p>\n
Brian Hunt, the president of the steamfitters\u2019 union, said O\u2019Brien was working on a project at the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art and described him as \u201ca good influence to those around him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLike many of us here in New York City, Richie woke up early every morning and came to work to help keep the New York City economy moving by building the projects that we build every day here,\u201d Hunt told The Post on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was an example of what a good steamfitter is supposed to be, and for anybody working blue collar in the city, or anybody working white collar and anybody working in Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hunt said \u201ceverybody is still just reeling from the loss of Richie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richie O\u2019Brien, 41, was killed while walking to work. Ronni O’Brien \/ Facebook<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen moving forward,\u201d he said. \u201cManhattan is a difficult place for commuters. Everybody has to pay attention, whether you\u2019re on a vehicle that has wheels, or if you\u2019re a pedestrian, everybody has to pay attention because it\u2019s Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien died early Sunday with his wife Ronni by his side, according to the family fundraiser.<\/p>\n
His brother-in-law Jason Bullara, writing in a heartfelt Reddit post, thanked the strangers in Central Park who stayed by during \u201cone of the worst moment\u2019s of Rich\u2019s life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien donated three of his organs before his death, Bullara revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven at the end of his life, he was able to give other people a chance at theirs,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHe was, quite simply, the best person I knew.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd somehow, even in death, he was still giving to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dedicated dad of two was knocked to the ground and killed when a bicyclist rammed into him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4709,32783,1015,318,75,57,9,11,10,58],"class_list":["post-359255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-central-park","tag-cyclists","tag-deaths","tag-freak-accidents","tag-manhattan","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}