A city bus struck and killed a woman in Jackson Heights Monday, marking yet another MTA accident since the mayor made pedestrian fatalities a top priority.
The woman, whose name has yet to be released, was hit by a Q53 bus between Roosevelt Avenue and 74th Street around 4:40 p.m., the NYPD said. The accident occurred in the heart of Monday’s snowstorm, but the city’s plow records showed the area had been plowed before the woman was hit.
Both the Police Department and Metropolitan Transportation Authority said they were investigating the incident and kept the intersection shut down through Tuesday.
Similar accidents have been under the microscope since Mayor Bill de Blasio rolled out his “Vision Zero” initiative, which set out to reduce pedestrian fatalities to zero over the next several years. And even though police have been cracking down on enforcing jaywalking laws, pedestrian accidents have made headlines nearly every week of 2014 to date.
Woodhaven resident Gertrude Schnabel, 84, was struck by the Q64 bus while crossing Queens Boulevard near East 108th Street the same day the mayor’s initiative was announced. Schnabel lost her left foot as a result of the incident and has since said she would file a $10 million lawsuit against the bus driver and the city, according to attorney Henry Davoli.
Just last weekend, a Ridgewood vigil remembered the life of 23-year-old Ella Bandes, who was killed in January 2013 after being struck by an MTA bus at the intersection of Myrtle, Wyckoff and Palmetto avenues. The hundreds of people in attendance acknowledged that even after Bandes’s death last year, the issue of pedestrian fatalities has not diminished.
Several other accidents involving cars and pedestrians have made headlines in the early weeks of 2014, including one resulting in the death of 69-year-old Angela Hurtado, who was hit and killed by an unlicensed driver while crossing Grand Avenue in Maspeth on her way to bingo Jan. 19.
Community advocate Dmytro Fedkowskyj also took to the intersection last week, calling on the mayor to expedite Vision Zero’s goal of reducing pedestrian fatalities. He stood beside Community Education Council District 24 members and concerned residents with hopes of changing the tide of traffic tragedies.
State Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) and state Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Ridgewood) have since been pushing bills they introduced that would toughen the penalties for injuring or killing somebody while driving without a license. The two stood beside City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), community advocates and residents last week to promote the bills.
While introducing legislation last week in Maspeth, the lawmakers paid respects to both Hurtado and Noshat Nahian – an 8-year-old boy who was killed by a tractor-trailer truck driven by an unlicensed driver on Northern Boulevard at 61st Street last month.
“We need to crack down on drivers who have demonstrated reckless behavior behind the wheel,” Markey said. “They have already lost their privilege to drive on our roads and these bills will make it clear they will be punished when they continue to violate the law.”
