Queens pizza delivery man hospitalized after being struck by e-bike

QUEENS - A pizza delivery man in Queens ended up in the hospital on the same day of the pizzeria’s grand opening after he was hit by a speeding e-bike rider during a walking delivery. 

Victor Tzaput, the delivery man, is recovering after being struck just before Leonardo's Pizza in Sunnyside closed after its first day of business.

About 30 minutes before the store closed, a delivery order came in, and Tzaput decided to walk it to the location, since it was so close.

"I asked Victor, ‘Is it ok if you want to just walk it or take the car, what do you want to do?’ He said, ‘No, it’s just down the block,’" said Leonardo Koka, the owner of Leonardo's.

According to Koka, Tzaput had the right of way as he was walking across Skillman Avenue, but once he reached the bike lane, he was struck. 

"I was inside actually, and customers came running into my store screaming saying, ‘Hey! Your driver got hit!’" Koka said.

"A person on an e-bike just came flying down and mauled him, broke his bones inside his leg [and] his head was bleeding," Koka continued. "I was so devastated I didn’t know what to do. I took my shirt off my own body [and] wrapped it around his head. I was trying to ease his pain." 

Tzaput doesn’t have health insurance and despite Koka spending his life savings to open the pizzeria, he’s covering Tzaput’s medical bills, even sleeping at the hospital as Tzaput recovers.

The community has created a GoFundMe campaign to help with the hospital bills. 

Koka says he believes e-bikes and mopeds must be regulated. 

"They should be registered," Koka said. "There should be some sort of identification, something, so we got to know who’s driving these e-bikes. They got to follow the rules just like everybody else." 

Koka and his other employee George are now a two-man team and until Tzaput gets better, there will only be pick-up orders.