Driver Hit Scooter Rider at 18th Avenue and 74th Street
A southbound Kia driver hit a 21-year-old Hover-1 rider at 18th Avenue and 74th Street. The rider was thrown from the scooter, suffered a severe head injury, and died at the scene. Police noted a blocked view at the corner.
What We Know
A 21-year-old man riding a Hover-1 e-scooter east on 74th Street was killed at 18th Avenue in Brooklyn when a southbound Kia sedan driver hit him. According to the police report, the impact ejected the rider and caused a fatal head injury, and officers recorded “View Obstructed/Limited” as a contributing factor. Both drivers were listed as going straight before the crash.
What police said happened
Police told the Daily News and amNewYork that Qiu Rifeng was riding a Hover-1 Journey electric scooter on the sidewalk of 74th Street in Bensonhurst and tried to cross 18th Avenue around midday on Aug. 20, 2022.
The outlets reported that a 23-year-old man driving a 2022 Kia sedan south on 18th Avenue hit Rifeng. Police said the impact threw him to the pavement and he suffered severe head trauma.
A Bensonhurst intersection on a deadly corridor
The crash happened at 18th Avenue and 74th Street in Brooklyn. CrashCountNYC location context for 18th Avenue in Brooklyn recorded 608 crashes, 402 injuries, 23 serious injuries and 7 deaths from the start of 2022 through June 1, 2026.
Qiu Rifeng died after the crash
Medics took Rifeng to Maimonides Medical Center, where he died. The city crash record lists the killed rider as a 21-year-old male; the Daily News and amNewYork identified Rifeng as 22.
The Daily News reported that Rifeng was hit about a block from his Brooklyn home. amNewYork reported that he was riding a little over a block from his home on 74th Street.
Recorded factors and street context
The official crash record lists obstructed or limited view as a contributing factor for both the sedan driver and the scooter rider. It also records the sedan traveling south and the scooter traveling east, with both going straight ahead before the crash.
amNewYork reported that the intersection had no marked crosswalk across 18th Avenue in the direction Rifeng was going, and that he would have had to travel one block north or south to cross the two-way avenue at a marked crossing.
The driver stayed at the scene
Police told the outlets that the Kia driver remained at the scene. The Daily News reported that he faced no immediate charges, and amNewYork reported that police had made no arrests.