Police released these surveillance photos ahead of the suspect’s arrest.
A 30-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with a serious collision in Central Park that left a man critically injured earlier this week, police said.
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The crash occurred around 4:30 p.m. on Monday, June 30, near 60th Street and West Drive. According to the NYPD, a 40-year-old man riding an electric unicycle was struck by a woman riding a bicycle. The man sustained severe injuries and was transported by EMS to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was listed in critical but stable condition (as of writing, nothing has changed regarding his condition). The cyclist, who has since been identified as Carolyn Backus, fled the scene before officers arrived, according to the initial police report.
On Tuesday, July 2, police confirmed that Backus had been arrested in connection with the case. She was taken into custody at 10:20 a.m. and charged with Leaving the Scene of an Accident Resulting in Serious Injury.
Shortly after the incident, a Reddit user believed to be Backus involved shared a detailed account of the crash. In the post, she described being thrown from her bike just before exiting the park, saying she heard a “horrific zooming noise” before the collision, and that the man riding the unicycle “was going incredibly fast and not wearing a helmet.” She also said she walked away with a bruised tailbone, but noted that the man on the unicycle “did not seem so lucky,” describing his condition as “very, very bad.” Additionally, she noted that “the ambulance got there pretty quickly.”
The Reddit post quickly circulated among the city’s cycling community and was flagged to ILTUWS by a tipster (thanks, Tim E) who claimed Backus had voluntarily come forward. When we asked the NYPD whether she turned herself in voluntarily, the officer we spoke with said “it appears she did” but could not confirm for sure. The officer also told us that she left immediately after the collision–that she didn’t stop and wait–which seems to contradict her Reddit account.
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Here’s the full Reddit post:
cautionary Central Park post
byu/PerspectiveSea9511 inNYCbike
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Helmets are cheaper than ambulance rides but hey it’s a free country.
I’ll have to disagree on Central Park being a great place to cycle. It is literally the worst place to cycle. Lots of uphill because of the single direction restriction, lots of tourists who don’t know how to ride Citi bikes, people like this one wheeler even though it seems to be inconsistent who was at fault, but anybody on electric anything is on a faster more dangerous vehicle. Someone can cut you off causing you to technically hit them as well. Again not commenting on who is at fault here because I don’t know, just saying the mix is bad in that park always. We’ve heard plenty of high profile accident stories. Remember Bono?
There is nothing more to say than, “use common sense”.
A guy on a powered unicycle is asking for trouble riding anywhere there are other vehicles.
Of note are the American Unicycle Accident studies: “ An estimated 3360 patients were treated for unicycle injuries from 1991 to 2010, averaging 168 injuries per year in the United States. Ten to fourteen-year-old patients represented 41% of the entire study cohort. Fractures represented approximately one third (32.9%) of all injuries treated. More than half (52.9%) of all injuries involved an extremity. Six of the 85 cases studied involved a head injury; all were aged younger than 18 years. Only 3.53% of all studied cases were admitted for further treatment. The rest were treated in the ED and discharged to home. Fractures were the primary diagnosis in all admitted cases.”
We may surmise: riding a unicycle offers very little protection in the way of surround- the rider is MORE exposed to traffic of every kind and an ambitious dog will easily topple a fleeing rider. And the Unicycle swerving and wavering and under high power is a danger to its companion cousins, the bicycle and car. Riding one is illegal in most places in America without a helmet. We would recommend moto dirt bike style protection.
Conclusion: Unicycles, including the safer non powered versions, shall be made illegal to ride on the public streets and sidewalks of NYC. There is nothing such thing as a safe unicycle, no such thing as a driver immune to terrible- or even fatal- trouble.
This says Carolyn Backus but she goes by SCOUT BACKUS. FYI.
Scout uses they/them pronouns. Scout is a fairly well-known and successful actor. They were on an episode of pretty Little liars and also in a movie with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. Furthermore, it turns out that scout did not leave the scene but stayed there for 45 minutes Scout stayed at the precinct for a few hours, but then was let go Because scout is legally not responsible since scout was on a non-Electric bike and the unicycle rider was on an electric bike.