Pedestrian Hit on Boulevard of Death

2006_10_qboul.jpgLast night, a man was crossing Queens Boulevard at 67th Avenue when a silver SUV hit him without stopping. The 59 year old man had been returning home from Yom Kippur services, and Queens DA Richard Brown said, "I'm troubled. I went to temple myself today. It's the most important day of the Jewish calendar, and apparently he was on his way home from temple after observing the holiday, and to have this happen to him is just a terrible tragedy." Police are looking for a silver Nissan SUV with either broken windows or windshield as the victim remains in critical condition at Jamaica Hospital.

Queens Boulevard is known as the "Boulevard of Death", with 72 deaths betwee 1993 and 2000, and 11 deaths since 2001. The city has tried to reduce jaywalking by putting fencing along the road and increasing pedestrian crossing time as part of its safety initatives. Here's Transporation Alternatives on Queens Boulevard.

And there have been two other incidents where pedestrians have been hit by cars:
- An 8 year old was hit by a car in Brooklyn on Sunday. Meir Merry was headed to his yeshiva when a BMW hit him on McDonald Avenue; the Post reports the driver's "view was blocked by an elevated support column for the F train." Merry is in critical condition.
- Fifty six year old Yao Huang of Manhattan was killed when an SUV hit him on the Upper East Side. A doorman told the Daily News, "I saw something flying through the air, and I didn't know what it was. Then I thought, 'My God, that's a dude!" The SUV's driver stayed at the scene.

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If one wants to complain about driver behavior in Manhattan, take a field trip to further out in the boroughs. I was in Sheepshead Bay a couple of weeks ago. Drivers don't just blow through stop signs; they don't even slow down or pause! I was really shocked. It seemed like the potential of pededstrian homicide was treated with the same seriousness as the possibility of getting a parking ticket. I guess that's how Manhattan bicyclists feel.

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its impossible not to speed on Queens Blvd. A lot of the blame goes to the pedestrian as well though. if he could judge how fast that damn car was going he woulda been fine. if he had waited for the light to change before crossing he would have been fine. Notice how its always old people or young kids who get hit on QB...funny thing is, on that intersection, theres already a sign that says "someone was hit by a car here, so be careful"

another reason to not go to church!

Dave H., I am with you 100% on the outer-borough driving. I have lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn and the driving's far crazier in Brooklyn - I think it's because the police presence just isn't as strong and because you can build up serious speed on some of those roads. I live near Coney Island Avenue - talk about a Boulevard of Death. One evening, I was crossing the street (my light, naturally) and some guy was taking a right. He was absolutely planning to blow right by me and came very close to me...until he saw a police car across the street and stopped short. It was AWESOME and, sadly, one of the few times in my n'hood where a driver yielded to me and let me walk.

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59 ain't exactly old as "K" implies. Although in this age of "innocent" until proven guilty (and then sometimes still innocent) the undisputed fact that the driver fled the scene suggests he/she might have not have been the most cautious of drivers.

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there's a very good chance that if you hit a pedestrian and not drive away you will not go to jail. unless of course you neglected the stop light or school zone...

driving away is just stupid (but most of these hot shots are stupid—and frankly you deserve anything that comes to you for driving llike as asshole.

There was another pedestrian fatality last week on the Lower East Side, when an elderly resident was hit by a shuttle van at Grand and Lewis (see http://loho10002.blogspot.com/2006/09/grand-street-kills.html).

Cars coming off the FDR onto this eastern end of Grand go really really fast--another pedestrian death trap.

"A man walking home from religious services at a temple on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar was run over and killed by a hit-and-run driver on a roadway dubbed the Boulevard of Death, police said".

the guy was killed then?

So another person was hit on Queens Blvd . So sad to hear about that I wish the family the best . The city needs to install more of those traffic camara's along the entire length of the boulevard . This shit is crazy, You can't even cross the street and not run the risk of getting hit ! We pedest. don't get off blame free here, I've seen plenty of people walking against the lights it's not just the crazy drivers . As far as this person was concerned was he crossing the right way ? Did he see the car approaching ? So many question need to be answered here.

Gaah, the Queens Blvd. one is in *my* neighborhood. Again. :-( (btw, I'm not the same Dave H. as above) Yeah, they have dividers, except where they've been squished by prior accidents. They also have several godawful crossings in a small area, some with three or four smaller "lane crossings" separated by median islands. It is often impossible to cross those in one light without dodging cars turning one way or another, as the red hand starts blinking. And then there's the cars stopping square across crosswalks, for which I have never seen a ticket given. Personally, I go for the subway underpasses when I can....

Damn, i live right next to the place he was hit. There was some serious TV activity etc.
This bukharian guy was cool... i have actually been using his taxi service for a while. sad...

This is sad, indeed....you should see also traffic in Bucharest Romania....pedestrians have to take care all the time and always watch out for cars.... no traffic police here but only for pedestrians!!!

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