E-bike rider fatally injures Priscilla Loke in Chinatown hit-run
An e-bike rider traveling north on Chrystie Street hit 69-year-old pedestrian Priscilla Loke at Grand Street at 10:34 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2023, and left after a crash that led to her death at Bellevue, police and official records show.
What We Know
An e-bike rider traveling north on Chrystie Street hit 69-year-old Priscilla Loke at Grand Street on the morning of Sept. 5, 2023, according to police and the official crash record. The official record places the crash at 10:34 a.m. and records one pedestrian death; press accounts, citing police, reported the rider left and that Loke died at Bellevue after severe head injuries. ABC7 reported that Loke was an assistant director at Chinatown Head Start and was walking to work. Evidence about the signals is not simple: the official record says Loke was crossing against the signal and also lists traffic control disregarded for the e-bike rider, while ABC7 reported that traffic had just stopped and pedestrians were crossing.
What police and records say happened
Police told amNewYork that Priscilla Loke was in the crosswalk at the northeast corner of Grand and Chrystie streets when a cyclist traveling north on Chrystie Street hit her around 10:30 a.m. The official crash record lists a 10:34 a.m. collision involving an e-bike rider going straight north and one pedestrian death.
Press accounts differ on the timing of Loke's death. amNewYork reported that EMS took her to NYC Health and Hospitals/Bellevue, where she died two days later from severe head injuries. ABC7 reported that she never regained consciousness and was taken off life support on Sept. 8, three days after the crash.
Priscilla Loke was a longtime Chinatown educator
ABC7 identified Loke as the assistant director of Chinatown Head Start and reported that she had helped run the center for more than 30 years. The Daily News reported that friends and colleagues remembered her as a loving soul who connected with students across four decades.
Her nephew Weng Wai Ho told ABC7, "It's taken her away from what my family could have, the closest thing to a grandmother."
Grand Street has seen repeated harm
The crash happened at Chrystie and Grand streets in Manhattan. CrashCountNYC's Grand Street location context counts 476 crashes, 255 injuries, 22 serious injuries, and one death on Grand Street in Manhattan from Jan. 1, 2022, through June 1, 2026.
Signal evidence points in more than one direction
The official record says Loke was crossing against the signal and lists pedestrian error or confusion for her. The same record lists traffic control disregarded for the e-bike rider. ABC7 separately reported that traffic had just stopped and pedestrians were crossing, adding that the two-way bike lanes likely had a red light.
Police sought the rider after he left
ABC7 reported that video showed the bicyclist talking to police after the collision, then getting back on the bike and leaving after officers walked over to Loke. amNewYork reported that police released photos and video of the person they sought and asked the public for tips.
Willington Chen of the Chinatown BID told ABC7, "Come forward because the family here deserves some answers, they should know what happened, one way or the other."