BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | A Greenpoint man died on the Lower East Side when he tried to hitch a ride on a garbage-hauling truck while skateboarding, police said.
The Daily News reported that Richard Oates, 32, had left a successful career as a chef to open a skateboard store, East River Skate Shop, also in Greenpoint.
On Tues., Jan. 12, at 1:19 p.m., police responded to a 911 call of a pedestrian struck at Delancey and Norfolk Sts. They found the Brooklyn ’boarder unconscious and unresponsive with trauma to his body. EMS transported him to Bellevue Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police said that a preliminary investigation revealed that Oates was skateboarding while hanging onto the passenger side of a green Mack truck traveling westbound on Delancey St. But he fell off his board onto the street and was struck by the truck’s rear passenger-side wheels. The News said Oates lost his balance when the truck changed lanes.
The investigation is ongoing by the Police Department’s Collision Investigation Squad. It was reported that no charges were filed against the truck driver, 37.
According to the News, Oates previously was a chef at Left Bank in the West Village and Freemans Restaurant on the Lower East Side. He was a married father of two young children.
