Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Bus Driver Faces Jail Time A Year After Fatally Striking Israeli Citi Bike Rider

Trial continues Friday for the bus driver who fatally hit Israel’s former No. 1 tennis player last summer, Gothamist reported.

Riding one of New York’s Citi Bikes, Dan Hanegby was struck June 12, 2017 by bus driver Dave Lewis in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. His death marked the first fatality in the program’s history.

Initial police reports said that Hanegby, a 36-year-old experienced bike commuter, swerved away from a parked vehicle and into the bus. However, Gothamist found video evidence that led to Lewis being charged with violating New York City’s Right of Way Law and failing to exercise due care — a misdemeanor and traffic violation, respectively.

On the first day of Lewis’s trial, which began last week, the defense argued that Hanegby was wearing headphones, “seemingly oblivious to what’s going on around him” when he turned off of 8th Avenue and onto West 26th Street, according to the New York Times.

Footage from two surveillance cameras was released Friday and is being used as evidence against Lewis. He is on trial after refusing a plea deal that included a $1,000 fine, driver remediation classes and a six month license suspension. If found guilty, he can face up to 30 days in jail.

Hanegby came to the United States to improve his tennis skills after serving in the IDF Special Forces. Before joining the service, he had been Israel’s top player.

A married father of two, he was living in Brooklyn and working as an investment banker for Credit Suisse. He was on his way to work at the time of the accident.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.