Cyclist Killed In Long Island Hit-And-Run Remembered As ‘Ubiquitous,’ ‘Generous’ Presence In NYC Bike Community

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David Schlichting, a sixty-six-year-antique bicycle owner and longtime fixture in New York City’s motorbike community, changed into killed through a success-and-run motive force on Long Island this weekend, in keeping with the government. Nassau County Police say that Schlichting becomes using his bicycle on the Long Island Expressway’s south provider avenue close to Lake Success at around nine a.M. On Sunday when he becomes struck by a minivan motive force, who then fled the scene. Schlichting turned into thrown off his bicycle and suffered severe head trauma in the crash, police stated. He was transported to a local hospital and reported lifeless quickly after. As of Monday morning, nearby police said that the suspect remained at large. A photograph taken close to the crash scene is thought to show the motive force’s silver minivan.

Cyclist Killed In Long Island Hit-And-Run Remembered As 'Ubiquitous,' 'Generous' Presence In NYC Bike Community 1

A resident of Long Island, Schlichting is remembered as an avid cyclist and traffic protection proponent who performed an instrumental function in launching several New York City biking establishments. “He became a generous guy, and he became an extremely conscientious and protection-minded cyclist,” recalled Steve Vaccaro, a chum of the victim who’s a lawyer and safe streets endorse. “He believed in doing it with the aid of the e-book and the importance of protection schooling for cyclists.” Schlichting’s contributions to the cyclist network spanned decades, beginning together with his involvement within the American Youth Hostels nonprofit, which for a good deal of the 1960s and 1970s organized frequent motorbike journeys for the duration of New York.

In the late Seventies, the institution becomes spun off into the Five Boroughs Bicycle Club, with Schlichting supporting to supply the Five Boro Bicycle Tour, an annual forty-mile trip that stays the USA’s biggest accumulating of cyclists. Schlichting served as a marshal captain of the tour through 2018 and was expected to renew that function again this 12 months, in step with organizers. He also volunteered for the Escape New York trip and helped spearhead a couple of safety and educational campaigns for fellow cyclists. “David turned into glad to make large volunteer commitments, however now not involved approximately getting credit score for work that he did,” referred to Vaccaro. “He was certainly ubiquitous in New York City cycling for decades.”

Schlichting is survived with the aid of his spouse, Lisa. In an assertion, Bike New York President & CEO Ken Podziba referred to as Schlichting “one of the maximum disciplined motorbike riders we understand,” adding that his death illustrated that “irrespective of how experienced and cautious a motorcycle rider is, cyclists inside the New York region will continue to die and be hurt until governments in any respect stages take avenue and avenue protection seriously enough to construct networks of covered motorbike lanes, layout streets to operate at safe speeds and get hassle drivers out from in the back of the wheel.”