A delivery worker on an electric bicycle slashed an on-duty city Department of Transportation employee Wednesday morning after the cyclist nearly collided with the worker’s truck in lower Manhattan, officials and witnesses said.
The truck may have been taking up a small portion of a bike lane that runs down Broadway near Cedar St. at the time of the attack, a police source with knowledge of the incident said. Witnesses, however, said the truck was parked at the corner, not in the bicycle lane.
“They weren’t even in the bike lane, they were parked on the corner, fixing the light or the sign or something,” one witness who works nearby, who only wanted to be identified as Chris, told the Daily News. “It was two DOT guys.”
The 28-year-old worker was fixing a street sign at the corner when the bicyclist nearly collided with his truck around 6:50 a.m., cops said.
As the two men argued about the near collision, the bicyclist whipped out a box cutter and slashed the worker in the arm.
“One of the girls came in and said, ‘They’re fighting on the corner with knives!’” Chris, 35, recalled. “We were, like, ‘What?’ So we came outside and then we saw it was pretty much [over].”
“It looked like the guy on the bicycle tried to apologize, because he went up to him [and tried to shake his hand],” Chris said. “And the guy was, like, ‘Get the f— away from me! You just sliced me!’ He probably knew he was going to get in trouble and was trying to cover himself.”
A moment later, the slasher took off on his electric bicycle down Liberty Ave., witnesses said. The DOT worker’s partner “wrapped a towel” on the victim’s arm to stop the bleeding, Chris said.
EMS rushed the city employee to Bellevue Hospital, where he was treated and released.
Cops were looking for the cyclist Wednesday. No arrest has been made.
“It’s always something in this city,” Chris said, smiling. “Bright and early, like 6-something in the morning. It’s crazy.”
A DOT spokesman condemned the slashing as an “abhorrent assault of a NYC DOT employee who performs critical work to keep our city moving.”
“Our thoughts are with our employee and their loved ones, and we hope they make a quick recovery,” the spokesman said. “We will be coordinating with NYPD to bring the perpetrator to justice.”
