MANHATTAN – A makeshift memorial now sits on the sidewalk along First Avenue not far from the spot where 31-year-old Salvador Navarette-Flores lost his life Monday night when his moped slammed into the back of an illegally double parked FreshDirect truck at the corner of East 76th Street.
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Several bouquets of white flowers, candles and cans of Modelo beer are set out on the concrete in tribute of Navarette-Flores, who worked as a food delivery man and lived in the Bronx. Some of the 31-year-old’s possessions are fashioned into the makeshift memorial— including a Just Salad hat and a single glove left behind after the crash.
Last night, dozens of ‘Deliveristas,’ as they’re known, stopped by crash scene Monday night, to pay their respects to their fallen brother. Navaratte-Flores was a member of the delivery workers collective Los Deliveristas Unidios, according to Transportation Alternatives, a street safety advocacy group.
“We stand with Los Deliveristas Unidos in the fight for safe streets for all, including our city’s essential delivery workers,” Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris told Upper East Site.
“With more and more deliveries taking place across New York City, we need the City to fast track dedicated loading zones… to ensure that delivery operators stop turning our sidewalks, bike lanes, bus lanes, and car lanes into parking and delivery hubs.”
At the scene today, a different FreshDirect truck could be seen illegally double-parked in the exact same location where Navarette-Flores slammed his moped into a different FreshDirect truck around 5:10 pm Monday evening.
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Neighbors tell Upper East Site a double-parked FreshDirect truck at that location has become a fixture— parked there day after day— becoming less like a delivery truck and more like a food storage warehouse and distribution center each day as it blocks traffic on First Avenue.
A deeper dive shows that FreshDirect uses this location on First Avenue and East 76th Street as an illegal loading zone so much, it appears on Google Street View year after year, going back to May 2019— though that year, the truck was spotted using an actual parking space rather than illegally parking.
FreshDirect tells Upper East Site it is “deeply saddened about this tragic accident,” adding that “FreshDirect wishes to extend its sincerest condolences to the family. We are unable to comment further as there is an active police investigation underway, and we are fully cooperating with the local authorities.”
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