Last year was reportedly the deadliest year for traffic violence in New York City since the launch of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature Vision Zero campaign to eliminate car crash-related fatalities in 2014. A review of recent coverage of car crashes in the city shows that they still remain hazardous for drivers, pedestrians, and other vulnerable road users.
On January 8th, the New York Daily News reported on a pair of crashes that killed two people. One occurred in Queens when a Honda Accord hit a pole “at a high rate of speed” in Queens Village. There were six people in the car, which reportedly “sped out of control” and hit a parked van. The occupants were taken to two separate hospitals; the front passenger died, while the others “are expected to survive.” The driver was “taken into custody” by the police, but no charges were filed as of the Daily News’s report. In a separate incident in the Bronx, “a silver Infiniti t-boned an 18-wheeler truck” in Hunts Point. The truck reportedly “sheared off” the majority of the car’s roof; two men were removed from it and taken to the hospital, where one of them, the passenger, died. The driver was charged with manslaughter and drunk driving, according to a later report by the Daily News.
On January 14th, Streetsblog reported on a pair of “horrific” car crashes in Brooklyn and Queens. In Brooklyn, the driver of a Ford Expedition hit a Chevrolet Impala, which then “slammed into two parked cars” while the Expedition kept driving down Gates Avenue, “jumped the curb, and struck a 77-year-old pedestrian.” The pedestrian was taken to a local hospital “in serious condition.” Federal law enforcement agents reportedly arrested the driver of the Expedition for “narcotics and firearms offenses.” In the second incident, the driver of a Cadillac Escalade hit a pedestrian in Middle Village, Queens. The report does not indicate the 57-year-old victim’s condition.
A Streetsblog article on January 13th, meanwhile, reported that the victim of a December 3rd incident in which she was “run over by the driver of a massive GMC truck” in Marine Park, Brooklyn, died from her injuries on January 8th. The driver was reportedly “issued a summons for failing to yield” to her, but was subject to no other sanctions.
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