NYPD and FDNY units in a hospital.
Photo: Andrés Correa Guatarasma / Courtesy
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Christian Catalán, a young delivery man of Mexican origin born in the US, died working when his bicycle was run over by a female driver with a baby on board in a stolen car in the Bronx (NYC).
Last night the community came together in honor of Catalán, who died on Sunday at the age of 21. The driver suspected of causing the fatal accident remains at large.
The woman was driving a stolen white jeep when he collided with the bicyclist near the corner of East 172nd Street and Metcalf Avenue in the Soundview neighborhood shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday. After crashing into the rider, got out of the stolen car with a baby and was picked up by another vehicle, leaving the injured Hispanic bleeding on the ground, police said.
“A vibrant young guy who was just trying to make a living”
Ivelisse Rosario Balbuena, relative of Christian Catalán
Catalán’s relatives ask the driver to turn herself in. “He has a family. He has people who love him very much,” his aunt Elizabeth Carino told ABC News. “And we hope… that these people have a little heart, step up and face the consequences. I just hope that she knows, as a mother, what my nephew’s mother is going through.”
“She needs to be found and she needs to comply with the consequences,” added Ivelisse Rosario Balbuena, another relative. “She’s not okay… She’s a vibrant young lad who was just trying to make a living.”
The accident that killed Catalan occurred in a particularly deadly week for young bicycle delivery men.
NYC Food Delivery Movement warned that in recent days three more delivery men were fatally hit by cars and another is in critical condition, having been beaten and stripped of his bike.
“People order food and someone has to deliver it. And this is hard work.” Roberto Martínez said, on behalf of the group, that is helping to raise money for a funeral here and a burial in Mexico.
Catalan was born here, but he sent money to his mother there since his father died. “He was the only support for his mother and his four brothers in Mexico,” her aunt Carino said.
After having his bike stolen at least once and other mishaps in traffic, he had told those close to him that he was looking for a safer way to work. “It is heartbreaking for the whole family to go through this because the magnitude of the accident is simply unbearable,” Carino summed up.
In addition to gun violencetraffic accidents are another big challenge for the new mayor Eric Adams, after a dismal legacy from his predecessor, Bill De Blasio. New York City has experienced a 35% increase in traffic accidents so far this year, stated NYPD in mid-April. At the end of that month there was a tragic streak in NYC at an average of one person killed by a run over every day.
No arrests have been made in Sunday’s hit-and-run. Anyone with information should call. at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and in Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). also through the page crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by text message to 274637 (CRIMES), followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.
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