Intoxicated Driver Who Killed a Cyclist in Williamsburg Has Been Charged with Manslaughter

A driver who hit and killed a cyclist in Williamsburg on Sunday was driving under the influence, authorities say. 

46-year-old Luis Mendez was fatally struck while riding his bike on Union Avenue and Lynch Street. He was hit around 11:30 a.m. by a van driver going northbound, now known to be 40-year-old Bed-Stuy resident Can Nomer. Authorities were called to the scene and took Mendez to NYC Health and Hospitals/Kings County, where he was pronounced deceased. 

Nomer was also taken to the hospital in stable condition. Authorities have now charged him with vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated and driving without a license. 

Williamsburg News first broke the news of the incident, sharing footage that depicts the van plowing into a parked vehicle. 

Sadly, these kinds of incidents have been all-too-common in 2024. In February, a cyclist was killed on Broadway and Lorimer, just two blocks away from where Mendez was killed, the 17th cyclist fatality so far this year. Streetsblog NYC reports that “total road fatalities between Jan. 1 and Aug. 25 are up nearly 2 percent, to 170, from last year, according to the NYPD.”

Williamsburg’s city council member, Lincoln Restler, shared his thoughts on X. “We’ll keep pushing for safer streets on every block. More cyclists died in NYC last year than 25 yrs. These deaths are preventable w/ network of protected lanes.”