Delivery Biker Killed In Upper East Side Crash

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A 31-year-old delivery worker was killed Monday when he crashed his motorized scooter into a parked truck on the Upper East Side, according to police.

The crash happened around 5:10 p.m. at the intersection of East 76th Street and First Avenue. Investigators believe the victim, Salvador Navarette-Flores, was riding his Jiajue scooter north along First Avenue when he struck a box truck parked in the left lane.

According to Streetsblog, the truck was a FreshDirect delivery vehicle that frequently uses the same location as an illegal loading zone.

Navarette-Flores, a Bronx resident, was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The driver has not been arrested or charged, though he was interviewed, police told Streetsblog.

Navarette-Flores was a member of Los Deliveristas Unidos, the group of delivery workers who organized to demand better protections from the city. The street-safety group Transportation Alternatives released a statement Tuesday condemning his death, noting that at least 10 delivery workers had been killed in crashes on New York City streets this year.

"We stand with Los Deliveristas Unidos in the fight for safe streets for all, including our city’s essential delivery workers," the group said.

By Tuesday morning, another company truck was back in the same spot, steps from a memorial that had been set up in Navarette-Flores's memory, according to Danny Harris, Transportation Alternatives' executive director.

Less than 24 hours after Salvador Navarette-Flores, a member of Los Deliveristas Unidios, was killed on 76th and 1st Ave by a @FreshDirect truck parked illegally, the truck is BACK IN THE SAME PLACE along with a new memorial to the latest victim of traffic violence in NYC. pic.twitter.com/9cFeReAzT0
— Danny Harris (@DannyHarris_TA) December 14, 2021

The crash remains under investigation by the NYPD's Highway Collision Investigation Unit.

Since 2011, 23 people have been injured in 22 crashes at the same intersection, according to city data. Those injured included 14 pedestrians, six cyclists and three drivers.