Former New York City mayor David Dinkins says he was never aware he had struck a bicyclist with his car earlier this summer.

Dinkins made the claim in response to a lawsuit filed Friday that says Dinkins left the scene after striking a bicycle deliveryman June 30.

The former Democratic mayor said in a statement Saturday he was driving his wife to the hospital when a man told him Dinkins' car had been hit by a bicycle half a block away.

Dinkins says he later returned to the alleged accident scene but didn't find anyone there. He says police interviewed him and inspected his car.

However, the lawyer for alleged victim Rodrigo Garcia says Dinkins' car clipped Garcia's bike, throwing him to the ground and breaking his ankle.