Some Answers in Cyclist Mathieu Lefevre’s Death

Last October, we reported about the bike death of Williamsburg artist Mathieu Lefevre, who was killed by a flatbed truck. Now, recently discovered court documents explain why the NYPD’s Accident Investigation Squad decided not to charge the truck driver who ran over Lefevre. It’s worth mentioning that the explanation (posted as an image above) isn’t exactly satisfactory for almost everyone, except the NYPD.

According to Gothamist:

The explanation doesn’t seem very satisfying, to put it mildly, but for the first time we have documentation on the investigators’ decision to let driver Leonardo Degianni off the hook — even though he did not signal his turn in advance, and left Lefevre to die in the street.

And Streetsblog.org, which found the court document, has this assessment:

Rather than charging Degianni for leaving the scene of a fatal crash and letting the justice system run its course, from the video AIS surmised that Degianni neither “knew [nor] had cause to know that he struck Mr. Lefevre.” Sheehan closed the case on January 4.

The blog adds:

In the closing report, Sheehan writes that though Degianni did not signal before turning into Lefevre at Morgan and Meserole, Lefevre “should not have been passing on the right side.” Therefore, Sheehan concludes, the crash was caused by “bicyclist error.”

Another pointless bicyclist death with no repercussions.