text: LOWER EAST SIDE – A skateboarder was killed while hitching a ride on a Mack truck traveling through the Lower East Side, police said Wednesday.
  
  Richard Oates, 32, of Brooklyn, was riding his board and hanging onto the passenger side of a green truck shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday, police said.
  
  He was traveling west on Delancey Street when he fell off his skateboard and onto the roadway, police said. Oates was struck by the truck’s rear passenger side wheels.
  
  Officers responded to the scene near Delancey and Norfolk streets to find Oates unconscious and unresponsive. Police said the skateboarder was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
  
  The incident is being investigated by the NYPD’s Collision Investigation Squad.