Bicyclist Flees Scene After Striking Pedestrian On Upper East Side

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- A pedestrian on the Upper East Side was in stable but improving condition after a man on a bike hit her earlier in the week.

Her family is now speaking out about the dangers some bike paths in the city can pose, and a search ensues for the bicyclist who just rode away.

The man could be seen on dash cam video fleeing after running into a 67-year-old woman on 1st Ave in Manhattan on Tuesday, CBS2's Steve Langford reported.

"You can see him turning around and looking back and he just kept peddling away," the victim's daughter Lily Belfi said.

Belfi was in the car as her mother stepped out to pay the parking meter on the other side of the bike lane.

"The bicyclist clipped her, kept going, and she was unconscious on the ground," Belfi said.

Mary Grace Belfi is now at Weill Cornell Medical Center with serious injuries. Her daughter happens to be a physician there.

"She had extensive intercranial bleeding, brain bleeding, which is the number one problem. The broken bones eventually will heal," she said.

Locals called the 1st Ave bike lane a frightening free-for-all.

"We find it very hard to cross First Avenue and everyone else does too for the senior citizens it's a nightmare for them," Adelaide Acquaviva said.

"Especially the delivery people. They seem to just be going in any direction they want to go in. It just seems to be very dangerous," Stephen Soleymani said.

Parking along the path means having to look both ways for speeding bicycles, crossing over to get to the parking meter machine, then crossing back over very carefully to get back to your car.

"We've seen a lot anecdotally, from my experience, increase in traumas from pedestrians struck for this exact kind of scenario," Belfi said.

Her mother's condition has improved to the point where she realizes what happened.

"She's very upset. She's very frustrated. She doesn't understand. She keeps saying, 'how did this happen?' 'Why didn't he stop?'" she said.

It's a question that is asked along 1st Ave many times each day.