One person has been hospitalized and is also in custody following a collision on Thursday evening, March 14, in Bedford Park, police said. A section of the Grand Concourse at Van Cortlandt Avenue was cordoned off by police following the accident which involved a car and an ATV [all-terrain vehicle]. Separately, in nearby Norwood, as also reported, a motorcycle rider is being sought for an assault on police the same evening, and later on Thursday night, a motorcycle rider died after being hospitalized following a collision with an ambulance in Morris Park.

 

After several follow-up calls with the NYPD to obtain clarification on the Bedford Park incident, an NYPD spokesperson told Norwood News that police had observed “a roving band,” meaning a large group of motorcycles and ATVs traveling in a pack, in the vicinity of Jerome Avenue and East Mosholu Parkway in Bedford Park at 6.13 p.m. on March 14, and had put word out over the police radio. They said the group subsequently dispersed in different directions.

The spokesperson said, “One of the ATVs ends up at the intersection of Grand Concourse and Van Cortlandt when he sees a separate police vehicle behind him with lights and siren not activated, like no lights or siren turned on.”

 

We asked if the police car was in pursuit of the ATV nonetheless and the spokesperson said, “At that time, at the intersection, that police vehicle did not have lights or a siren activated.” We asked if the police vehicle was stationary or in motion and the police spokesperson said, “It came up behind the ATV at the red light and for whatever reason, I guess, he [the ATV driver] was spooked or for whatever reason, the  ATV [driver] decides to run the red light.”

 

The spokesperson continued, “At the same time, a blue 2017 Nissan sedan was approaching on Van Cortlandt, going towards Mosholu Parkway [across the Grand Concourse] which ends up colliding with that ATV, and the Nissan was occupied times two.” He said there was a 63-year-old male driver in the sedan along with a 20-year-old male passenger, and that both refused medical attention at the scene.

He said the driver of the ATV was transferred to St. Barnabas Hospital, initially in critical condition and was reportedly later in stable condition. “He remains in police custody,” the spokesperson said. “At this point, it’s not an arrest. It’s a pending investigation so we’ll be updating it.”

 

Asked if there was more than one occupant on the ATV at the time of the collsion, the spokesperson said he just had a report of one occupant.

 

After some earlier, initial conflicting reports about whether there had or had not been a collision, police reported that the NYPD’s collision investigation squad had been called to the Bedford Park accident location.

A GROUP OF motorcycles and ATV riders is seen traveling north along the Grand Concourse in the Tremont section of The Bronx on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Video by David Greene

Asked earlier in the evening for a description of the hospitalized victim, another NYPD spokesperson had said he was male. “I don’t have an age or anything like that but it appears it was a male,” he said.

 

Earlier on Thursday evening, there had also been some separate, unconfirmed reports of a possble collision at nearby East Gun Hill Road and Bainbridge Avenue in Norwood. When we asked police about this initially, a spokesperson said he didn’t have any record of a separate collision at that location. As later reported, it seems it was actually an assault in the end rather than a collision.

 

Meanwhile, EMS and several police vehicles were seen at Van Cortlandt Avenue and the Grand Concourse, and helicopters were seen and heard flying over the area from around 6 p.m.

A GROUP OF motorcycles and ATV riders is seen traveling down the Grand Concourse by East 204th Street on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Video by Síle Moloney

One female resident who declined to be identified told Norwood News she saw around 20 riders on motorcycles / ATVs traveling on Paul Avenue towards Lehman College in Bedford Park around the time the incident occurred.

 

Another female resident, who was with her mom and who also declined to be identified, said she did not see what had happened but added, “So, from what I heard it was like that someone on that group of people were on that red motorcycle [gesturing to a 4-wheel, red ATV seen at the incident location], and they were getting chased by the cops, and apparently the person on it, I guess, fell off.”

 

She continued, “But the other people that were on it with him kept driving, and I guess some kind of incident occurred. I’m not sure if the person…..there were like two different ambulances here. Apparently, somebody did get transported away but it was like a hit & run kind of situation so, they were looking around. There were police like going in and out of this building right here [gestures to a building on the corner of Grand Concourse and Van Cortlandt Avenue].”

Asked how she felt about the incident happening in her neighborhood, the woman said, “I mean, it’s, I guess, it’s scary because there hasn’t been a lot happening in this neighborhood, I think, until recently that’s making a lot of people want to move from here.”

 

A group of motorcycles and ATV riders had been seen by Norwood News on Tuesday, March 12, at around 5 p.m. traveling at high speed and breaking lights up and down the Grand Concourse in the same general vicinity as where the collision occurred. A video is attached to this story. We asked the woman if she had also seen the group. She said, “I’ve seen a lot of those, yeah. They’re very reckless. I mean they’re very scary. All those motorcycles in general are terrifyinfpg.”

We asked if she had witnessed the riders breaking the red lights, as was seen on March 12. The woman said, “Um, I don’t think I’ve paid attention to that but they’re very reckless, and there’s always, usually, like a group, right? Yeah, I have seen them on like Jerome [Avenue] over there.”

 

One Norwood News reporter had seen a group of motorcycles and ATV riders traveling at speed on the Grand Concourse in the Tremont area earlier on Thursday evening, March 14. It’s unknown if it was the same group as was seen by police at Mosholu Parkway and Jerome Avenue in Bedford Park. A video is attached of the Tremont sighting.

Norwood News had also contacted the NYPD to ask about a separate, unconfirmed report of a brick being thrown at a police officer possibly by a motorcycle rider in the Tremont area prior to the collision in Bedford Park on March 14 but were informed they had no record of this. As above, and as reported, it seems this incident occurred in Norwood in the end, not Tremont.

 

A red ATV was seen at the scene of the Bedford Park collision and police had placed red markers at the scene on the Grand Concourse as part of their investigation.

 

Traffic was still being allowed pass through the area of the incident on Thursday evening, despite one section being cordoned off, but some delays were likely expected.

We also spoke to some other passersby after the incident occurred and asked them what they knew. One woman, who described herself as Mariela de la Fiesta (Party Mariela) said, “I live nearby so I heard the helicopters and it brings to my attention what was happening, and when I came, I just find the police.” She said she didn’t see what happened but understood it was an accident. She didn’t see any injured people, she said.

 

Norwood News previously reported on a major crackdown by police on scooters, motorcycles and ATVs when the 52nd Precinct unveiled a stash of unregistered bikes they seized in August 2022.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

All calls are strictly confidential.

 

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story referred to some of the two-wheeled vehicles involved as e-bikes. In fact, the NYPD could not confirm if the two-wheeled vehicles that were involved in the “roving band” were motorcycles or e-bikes. We have updated the wording in the meantime to motorcycles. An ATV can be gas-powered or electric.