Deadly Bridge Bike Crash: Calls for Tougher Enforcement Growing
Two men died after a head-on collision on the bike path of the Queensboro Bridge on May 28. One man was riding a banned stand up scooter, the other a pedal bike.
| 31 May 2026 | 11:31
Image of the broken bike and electric scooter following the collision. (
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FDNY firefighters respond to a head on collision involving two bikers on the Queensboro Bridge. One victim was driving a stand up scooter, the other was driving a light weight racing bike. Both were rushed to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead. (
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Police write out a summons on the afternoon of May 29 to a person who was driving a motorized vehicle that is banned from the bike lane on the Queensboro Bridge. A scooter and a bike collided in the bike lane the previous day, killing both individuals. (
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Ambulances rushed the two victims, identified as Francis Del Valle, 39, and Dmytro Stechenko, 35, to a local hospital following the collision on the bike path of the Queensboro Bridge on the morning of May 28 but neither could be saved. (
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Bicyclists during aftermath of the collision. On Queensboro Bridge facing Queens. (
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Signs on Queensboro Bridge warning against use of mopeds in bike lane on the Long Island City side. (
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Signs on Queensboro Bridge in Long Island City. A clear prohibition of mopeds and separation between bike and pedestrian lanes. (
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Manhattan entrance of Queensboro Bridge. Bike lane start with signs prohibiting mopeds in the lane. (
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Start of bike lane on Queensboro Bridge from Manhattan entrance. (
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Queensboro Bridge view from pedestrian pathway (
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Pedestrian pathway on Queensboro Bridge (
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View from Queensboro Bridge facing Manhattan. (
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View from Queensboro Bridge facing Roosevelt Island and Queens. (
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Sign on Queensboro Bridge warning against pedestrians or bicyclists entering the road. (
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Two people were killed in a head-on collision in the bike lane on the Queensboro Bridge on the morning of May 28, prompting calls for tougher enforcement of laws banning mopeds and scooters on the bridge as well as enforcing the 15 MPH speed limits for e-bikes that is already in effect.
“The problem is that there are NO enforcement agents for bikes/e-bikers anywhere in the city,” said David Achelis, a poster on the social media site NextDoor. “We need armed and uniformed police on the streets and sidewalks to stop law breakers...you can write all the laws you want but nothing will change until the city actually enforces the laws!”
Police identified the victims at Dmytro Stechenko, 35, who was driving a high-end pedal bike, and Francis Del Valle, 39, who was on a standup scooter that is able to reach speeds of up to 53 MPH and which is already banned in NYC. Stechenko, who was living in Long Island City is a Ukrainian immigrant who was a software engineer at Meta for the past seven years, according to his Linkedin profile.
Del Valle was traveling westbound heading into Manhattan on a scooter identified as a Blade GT II. Stechenko was heading east on a pedal only racing bike on the downhill portion of the bridge. Both victims were transported to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Hospital but were pronounced dead.
“Crashes like these are entirely preventable,” said Ben Furnas, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a bike advocacy group. “Scooters that travel this quickly have no place in our bike lanes.:
He said that the e-scooter involved in the head on collision was an illegal device that can travel up to 53 mph. The e-scooter is illegal to ride on the street but easy to purchase online.
“The City Council must move forward with the ‘Ride Safe, Ride Right’ bill to prevent the sale of the most dangerous micro-mobility devices. 20 mph is plenty for anything on New York City neighborhood streets, and certainly in our bike lanes. The data is clear: anything faster than 20 mph is especially deadly. 20 is plenty—no matter who you are or how you’re traveling. Speed kills.”
When Straus News visited the crash site on the morning after the crash, no police were observed on the entrance ramps to the bridge and there were plenty of speeding scooters and mopeds in the bike lane.
By the afternoon, one Reddit poster noted the situation appeared to have changed somewhat regarding enforcement activity. “NYPD was ticketing mopeds and scooters during my afternoon commute,” said an online poster who went by elmoisez15. “There is also a new gate installed on the Manhattan side of the QBB...”
”I hope they keep up this enforcement moving forward,” wrote another poster. “A week/month long blitz won’t fix the issue.”
People that Straus News spoke with on the Queensboro Bridge the day after the deadly crash were still rattled by the events the preceding day. The deadly accident came despite some official efforts to make the chaotic bike and pedestrian lanes safer in the past. In May 2025, the then-Mayor Eric Adams separated what used to be a shared lane for bicyclists and pedestrians. Bikes moved to a two way bike lane on the north side where the deadly crash occurred on May 27, pedestrians on what was supposed to be their own lanes were moved to the south side.
Despite this improvement, residents that Straus Media spoke with remain frustrated with what they see as the neglect of safety on the bridge, for both pedestrians and bicyclists. And e-bikes often sneak onto the pedestrian only side.
“I don’t bike there anymore,” said a person on the pedestrian side of the bridge who identified herself as Jennifer. “It’s not safe. You have people going 30, 40 miles an hour honking at you.” She calls herself an avid bicyclist who nevertheless avoids biking on the Queensboro Bridge due to the increase of electric bikes, scooters, and mopeds on the “Bikes Only” path in recent years.
Bikes frequently enter the pedestrian walkway on the south side of the bridge and disturb the lane. “They go so fast. The bikes shouldn’t be here,” said Ken, a Manhattan resident who said he walks the bridge three times a week to reach his gym in Queens. “They’ve got their own lane.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani weighed in on the tragedy as well.
Mayoral deputy press spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said the Mamdani administration would continue to fight illegal vehicles.
“This terrible tragedy is a grim reminder that illegal, high-speed micro-mobility devices, like the standup e-scooter involved in this incident, are dangerous and have no place on our roadways or bike paths,” said Mamdani spokesman Jeremy Edwards. “Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe, and the Mamdani Administration will continue working to remove these illegal devices from our streets and bring accountability to micro-mobility use.”
