A state contractor carrying out an inspection on a Queens (NYC) highway was fatally struck by a driver in a spectacular multiple collision yesterday.
According to authorities, the victim was inspecting a wall and was inside a work zone on the east side of Grand Central Parkway near 34th Ave. in North Corona when an eastbound driver brushed a vehicle around the 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.
The driver of that struck vehicle lost control, veered and crashed into the construction area, striking the contractor.
The worker, who was employed by the state Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens, where he later died. His name was not mentioned at the time.
No charges were immediately filed against the drivers involved in the accident. The person who ran over the contractor was taken to the same hospital with minor injuries, he said. Daily News.
“This tragic incident underscores the dangers our highway workers face as they work to improve our infrastructure,” said Joe Morrissey, NYSDOT spokesman. Coincidentally for today, Thursday, that state department planned to honor 58 workers who died in the line of duty in Syracuse, reported his official Twitter account.
This tragic incident underscores the dangers our highway workers face as they work to improve our infrastructure.”
Joe Morrissey, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation (NYSDOT)
In addition to armed violence, traffic accidents are another great challenge for Mayor Eric Adams. This is 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.
But 2022 was a grim year on New York asphalt in all five boroughs. From January 1 to July 31, about 150 people were killed in traffic accidents, according to the DOT. In particular, there was a 129% increase in hit and run incidents.
New York City had already experienced a 35% increase in traffic accidents in April 2022, the NYPD alerted. At the end of that month there was a tragic streak with an average of one person killed by being run over every day.
In 2023, in addition to cyclists, several pedestrians have been killed in NYC, including three on the same night earlier this month, one of them a 62-year-old Hispanic in East Harlem. Days later, an unlicensed driver fatally struck a teenage bicyclist in Queens and fled.
In March Elizabeth “Liz” Pérez, a 60-year-old woman, died when she was crossing a street in Brooklyn (NYC) when she was struck by a young Hispanic driver without a license who fled and was later arrested. Also that month three people were rushed to the hospital after a motorcycle accident in the Bronx and one of them died: a 72-year-old woman.