A Flushing cyclist was fatally struck by the driver of a pickup truck on Sanford Avenue and 160th Street just blocks from his home on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 20.
Police from the 109th Precinct in Flushing responded to a 911 call of a motor vehicle collision at the location and found Xi Zheng, 48, of 163rd Street, lying on the roadway with trauma to his head and body. EMS rushed Zheng to New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital, where he was subsequently pronounced dead.
Further investigation by the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad determined that Zheng was riding westbound on Sanford Avenue just after 10 a.m. when a 2015 Ford F150 with a 23-year-old man behind the wheel was traveling southbound on 160th Street. The driver made a right-hand turn onto Sanford Avenue and slammed into the victim. Following the fatal crash, the truck driver remained on the scene and was not injured. He was not arrested, but the investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad.
Zheng became the first traffic fatality in the 109th Precinct so far this year. The precinct reported 37 collisions so far in 2026, four fewer than the 41 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 4%, according to the latest CompStat report.
