By Charles Sweeney
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

PARK SLOPE – A morning bicycle ride ended in tragedy for one Park Slope man, 50-year-old Jonathan Milstein, who died from injuries suffered in a collision with a school bus Wednesday morning.

According to reports of the incident, at around 8 a.m., Milstein was cycling westbound on President Street when he came to the intersection in Eighth Avenue, where witnesses said the cyclist appeared to be trying to make the light. Police reports simply stated that Milstein collided with the school bus, which was carrying no passengers at the time.

Emergency responders transported Milstein to nearby New York Methodist Hospital, where he was declared DOA from his injuries.

Police at first did not reveal whether any traffic violations were committed by either Milstein or the driver of the school bus, which belongs to the Atlantic Bus Company – but an afternoon media alert eventually announced that the accident involved no criminality.

Little was known about Milstein except his age and residence, which police announced was 457 State St., near the scene of the fatal accident. Calls to Atlantic Bus were not returned by press time. A company listed as Atlantic Transportation, which advertises school bus services, has four locations in Brooklyn.

Eighth Avenue is a one-way corridor running one block west of Prospect Park, and as such, it serves as a popular access point for bicycle riders making use of the pathways inside the park, according to Transportation Alternatives (TA), a bicyclists’ advocacy group.

A spokesman for TA called Eighth Avenue “problematic,� attributing the dangers to cyclists to the one-way corridor’s proximity to the park and the tendency of motorists to exceed speed limits.

The biking fatality comes just four days after 8-year old Alexander Toulouse was killed riding his bike at Boerum Place and Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn.

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