Sad news tonight at the Old Stone House wine tastng: A biker died in a traffic accident on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.

Aaron Naparstak, the man who helped convince the local Commerce Bank to rethink the drive-in concept, informed me and a friend about the incident.

The accident occurred on Fifth Avenue at Warren Steet. This is how I understood what he said: the woman was cycling north down Fifth toward Flatbush when the door of a truck opened suddenly and hit her. She went flying off her bike and sent to the other side of the street, where she was hit by another truck She died on impact.

The New York Daily News describes it this way: As Elizabeth Padilla, a 28-year-old lawyer, attempted to pass a 10-wheel Edy’s Ice Cream truck, the driver of another truck parked on Fifth Ave. in Park Slope opened his door, witnesses said. Padilla swerved to avoid the door but hit the side of the moving ice cream truck, causing her to topple under the vehicle’s large rear wheels, police said. She was killed instantly, just six blocks from her apartment.

The friend I was standing with at the wine tasting had already heard the news. She lives on Berkeley Place in the building next door to the young woman’s apartment. Earlier today, a policeman came to her home and told her that one of her neighbors was in a biking accident. He wanted to know if she knew the young woman’s relatves. She did not.

In fact, my friend didn’t know the woman at all. The young woman moved in maybe three months ago. "There’s a lot of turnover in the building next door," she said. They never spoke. "I don’t even remember what she looks like," she added. But she feels very said,
nonetheless.

My friend asked the policeman how the young woman was doing. "Not very well," the police offier said.  Somehow she knew that meant she was dead. "It is every mother’s nightmare to lose your child. I felt sick to my stomach for the mother of that young woman."

A young life was lost today on Fifh Avenue. Her name was ELizabeth Padilla.

* A reader on Daily Heights notes that it is more than likely that Padilla was riding on (or trying to) ride on a well-marked bike lane. Much of FIfth Avenue from Flatbush to 20th Street is well-marked as such.