A 58-year-old Elmhurst woman died in a hit-and-run accident at Queens Boulevard and 71st Avenue in Forest Hills Saturday night, police said.
Nisath Hossain, an immigrant from Bangladesh, was reportedly walking home from her job at McDonald’s around 10:15 p.m. when a silver minivan traveling westbound struck her and sped off, according to the NYPD.
She was brought to North Shore University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Hossain was mourned by family and friends, who described the woman as a doting mother of her only child, Faisal Riaz, 35. Hossain and her husband had moved to the United States from Bangladesh in 1998 and worked for several years to be able to afford to bring their son over. Her husband died last year, according to other published reports.
Long known as the “Boulevard of Death,” Queens Boulevard has been criticized for years by transportation advocates and residents who say far too many lives have been lost on the roadway.
Recently, a group of residents have been securing signatures for a Transportation Alternatives petition calling for additional traffic calming measures to be implemented on Queens Boulevard – which runs from Long Island City to Jamaica. Much of the boulevard is about 12 lanes wide but expands to 16 lanes near Yellowstone Boulevard in Forest Hills.
So far, individuals have collected more than 1,000 signatures for the petition that will be brought to community boards for support. The boards will be asked to urge the city Department of Transportation to implement such measures as protected bicycle lanes, dedicated bus lanes and better protected areas for pedestrians.
“We’ve been working on Queens Boulevard for the past decade, and our vision is to transform the street into what we call a complete street – a street that accommodates everyone,” Miller Nuttle, of Transportation Alternatives, said in a previous interview.
Nuttle and other civic activists have noted that there have been changes made to Queens Boulevard in recent years, in part at the urging of Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills), including the implementation of fencing to keep people from jaywalking and countdown clocks at crosswalks.
Still, residents said the roadway is far too dangerous and should be a priority for the city DOT, considering it runs through much of the borough – passing through such neighborhoods as Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Elmhurst, Rego Park, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Briarwood, and Jamaica.
