Two youngsters, ages 16 and 18, who were passengers in a luxury BMW were killed outside New York’s JFK airport Sunday when their speeding teenage driver struck a median and rolled over.
According to police, the 19-year-old driver was leaving the airport on the JFK Expressway when he lost control as he approached the Belt Parkway near 150th St. around 11:45 p.m. Sunday. The victims were identified as his friends Ronish Kush (16) and Sukhmani Singh (18).
The driver “was unable to properly navigate the road” and lost control, police summarized. He hit a median, riding on it for a short distance before his white 2011 BMW sedan rolled over.
Kush died at the scene while his friend Singh was rushed by paramedics to Jamaica Hospital in Queens, but they were unable to save him. Both lived in Long Island’s Nassau County, he said. Daily News.
The unidentified driver was taken to the same hospital in stable condition. He was not immediately charged.
Also over the weekend in Staten Island, a 23-year-old pregnant woman was killed in a dramatic single-vehicle accident driven by her boyfriend, who was arrested and charged with drunk driving.
In a similar case, in late December a driver died after losing control on a Queens freeway: his vehicle flipped mid-air and landed in a trailer lot outside JFK airport, where it exploded, starting a fire that it quickly spread to other cars.
In addition to gun violence, traffic accidents are another big challenge for Mayor Eric Adams. This despite “Vision Zero”, a road safety plan created in 2014 by then-new mayor Bill de Blasio, who promised to make the city safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, with a goal of zero deaths by 2024.