Cyclist Hit With Charges For Fatal Midtown Collision, Police Say

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A cyclist was hit with criminal charges this week for an April collision that killed a pedestrian, police said.

Dameon Doward, 41, was arrested Wednesday and charged with reckless endangerment, police said. Doward was riding his bicycle west on West 57th Street when he collided with 67-year-old Donna Sturm in the mid-block crosswalk between Fifth and Sixth avenues, said police.

Sturm died of her injuries nearly two weeks after the initial April 24 collision, her family said in a statement released through family lawyer Ben Rubinowitz.

"Donna Sturm was a vibrant, energetic and wonderful woman who died as a result of carelessness and negligence. She died because a bicyclist completely disregarded the law. She was crossing a street, in the crosswalk, with the light in her favor when she was struck. Unfortunately, she suffered horrific head injuries and, although the doctors tried their best over the last week, they were unable to save her life," the family's statement reads.

Doward stayed at the scene of the collision and was initially issued a summons for running a red light, police said.

Sturm's death was the first time a pedestrian had been killed by a cyclist since the 2017 death of a man on the Lower East Side. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to prosecute the cyclist in 2017, local publication the Bowery Boogie reported at the time.