Bus Driver in Fatal Citi Bike Accident Is Found Guilty

NEW YORK — Monday’s guilty verdict against the driver of a 50,000-pound bus that struck and killed a Citi Bike rider in 2017 reawakened a raw debate about who bears more responsibility on New York City’s crowded streets: cyclists or motorists?

The operator of the Coach bus, Dave Lewis, was found guilty of failing to yield the right of way, a misdemeanor, and failure to exercise due care, a violation, after a bench trial before a state Supreme Court judge in Manhattan.

The June collision on 26th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues in Chelsea killed Dan Hanegby, a 36-year-old investment banker from Brooklyn, and marked the first death involving the popular bike-share service.

Lawyers for Lewis, who had turned down a no-jail plea deal that involved a fine and a six-month license revocation, had noted that Hanegby was wearing headphones, and argued that his death was an unfortunate accident.

During closing arguments on Monday, a prosecutor and a defense lawyer each described the moment that Lewis — steering his bus down a stretch of road narrowed by vehicles parked on both sides of the street — collided with Hanegby, who fell to the ground and was run over.

But they offered far different explanations of who was to blame.

“There was ample time and ample location for this bicyclist to pull over,” a defense lawyer, Jeremy Saland, told the judge overseeing Lewis’ trial, adding that the bicyclist had been “completely and totally unaware” of his surroundings.

None of that mattered, according to a prosecutor, Raffaela Belizaire.

“Dan Hanegby had the right of way,” she countered. “The defendant thought that the cyclist should move over, not that he himself should have slowed down.”

After the judge, Heidi Cesare, found him guilty, Lewis left the courthouse without comment. When sentenced Oct. 22, he faces up to 30 days in jail for failing to yield the right of way, and up to 15 days imprisonment for failing to exercise due care.

Bicycling advocates found validation in the verdict.

“Drivers are rarely held accountable for recklessly taking lives on New York City streets,” said Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives. “All too often, police hastily exonerate drivers while erroneously blaming bicyclists and pedestrians for their own deaths.”

The authorities initially said that Hanegby had struck the bus after swerving to avoid a parked van.

But surveillance video from a nearby business showed Hanegby riding in a straight line before being struck by Lewis, prosecutors said.

Despite the presence of the video, much of the trial revolved around the distinctly different perspectives of the motorists and cyclists who battle daily for turf on the city’s increasingly crowded streets.

Saland told the judge Hanegby had “lost control” of the bike.

Belizaire maintained that Lewis had behaved irresponsibly by attempting to “barrel” past the biker through a narrow channel where a parked white Ford van and a black SUV had tapered the available road space.

Saland also raised the possibility that Hanegby had been riding erratically before being struck. For instance, he suggested it was possible that the cyclist had emerged suddenly onto the roadway, perhaps from the sidewalk.

Belizaire dismissed that theory. “Victim blaming,” she told the judge, “has no place in any criminal courtroom.”