Crime & Safety

Coworker: Killed Cyclist Was 'Really Good Person' Who 'Liked to Bike'

Sleepy Hollow resident Luis Zhizhpon was riding home from the Mexican restaurant where he cooks when he was fatally struck last night; coworker said fellow employees often urged him not to ride Route 9.

The on Route 9 was cycling home from his shift at Guadalajara Restaurant in Briarcliff Manor, reported LoHud this afternoon.

Hector, a fellow worker at the Mexican restaurant along Route 9 who didn't want to disclose his full name or much more in order to be sensitive to the situation and Luis Zhizhpon's family, said “we all feel bad. He was a really good person, a really good cook.”

Zhizhpon, said Hector, had been with the restaurant about two years, and “sometimes, not all the time” rode his bike home down Route 9 to Sleepy Hollow. "He liked to bike," he said. Zhizhpon was only 28 years old.

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Try to walk, or ride by the cemetery at night – or even by day, for that matter – and it really seems you are taking your life in your own hands.

Local avid cyclist, Steve Moon, agreed. “I wouldn't ride at night, not where there's cars,” said the owner of  on Main. “There are trails for that. If I do ride at night, it's a designated ride where everyone's fitted out with lights and everything and certainly not where there's traffic.”

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Moon even detours Route 9 by day, he said. “I try to avoid those roads because they are so congested.” He advised taking the back roads that run parallel, cutting off Route 9 and riding through the Manor, for instance.  

As in a similar fatal bike incident that took place recently in Rockland County, wearing a helmet was not enough. Hector said Zhizhpon's coworkers often urged him not to ride home after dark. “We tried to tell him not to do that...it's very dangerous. He covers his head but you always think something is not going to happen to you.”

Hector added that the restaurant workers are busy just trying to support Zhizhpon's family. The restaurant manager was out at the moment buying flowers for a funeral still being planned for either Wednesday or the weekend.

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