Jan. 7, 2019 By Kristen Torres
A 10-year-old boy is dead and his mother injured after a Dept. of Sanitation garbage truck hit them as they were crossing a Corona street by the LeFrak City apartments this morning, according to police.
Police said the boy was crossing 57th Avenue near 97th Street with his mother, 40, around 7 a.m. when they were hit. The truck was exiting a commercial driveway and made a right turn going eastbound on 57th Avenue when it struck the pair, police said.
The two were taken to Elmhurst Hospital where the child was pronounced dead a few hours later. His mother is expected to survive.
“We take this tragedy extremely seriously and the collision is currently under investigation,” said a spokesperson for the Department of Sanitation.
No charges have been filed and the investigation is still ongoing, according to police. The driver remained on the scene.
Emergency services units at the scene on 57th Avenue this morning (Citizen)
The boy was the 18th pedestrian killed in New York City in the past 30 days, according to Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group that wants to reduce the number of cars on the road by promoting cycling, walking and mass transit.
“Tragedies like these are not accidents, but predictable and preventable results of policies that prioritize moving traffic ahead of protecting people,” according to the advocacy group.
Transportation Alternatives is calling on the City Council to pass–and the mayor to sign–a bill dubbed the Reckless Driver Accountability Act. The bill aims to remove habitual reckless drivers from the streets by impounding their vehicles.
Meanwhile, Council Member Francisco Moya, Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry and the LeFrak City Tenants Association will be holding a vigil at 6 p.m. Tuesday to honor the 10-year-old boy.
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12 Comments
He’s taking us back to the ’70s era of garbage truck accidents
On the other hand, we need to teach our kids how to cross the street from an early age. The “cross-street ladies” won’t always be there to hold the traffic. And some parents are very careless showing bad example to their kids.
I’ve seen enough people cross carelessness in my 15yrs of professionally driving. Nobody waits for the cars to come to a complete stop because they’ll wish to earn that settlement in court. Only in America. That’s why you can tell who’s a tourist when they wait until they made eye contacts with the drivers before proceeding to cross. This is obviously not the way but to be this cautious means to be safer as a civilian. Reduce the amount of cars to promote cyclist( who also run into civilians[ COMMON DENOMINATOR] in the “STREETS”) and public transportation? Seems like someone in Transportation Alternative are being sponsored by MTA and Citibikes.
Transportation Alternatives. None of what they ask for passing this so called bill is practical. Taking away vehicles is not the solution and is not the best practical answer.
None of their arguments are practical for such a cosmopolitan and crowded city such as NYC. It’s a unique city.
No one should ever make irrational decisions when under an irate state.
We are all sad of what happened. Let the investigation take its path.
Pedestrians should be educated on the correct manner and way and time of when to cross the intersections as well as to lookout for trucks and larger vehicles as their vantage points and blind spots are obscured by the size of the vehicle.
Drivers should also take note and be educated on coming out of driveways or any other type of street for that matter to look out as best they can for pedestrians.
There should exist harmony between pedestrians and drivers. But unfortunate isn’t because as a driver the worst feeling is when the pedestrian jumps out of no where into oncoming traffic and takes their sweet time crossing the street and as a pedestrian I hate it when drivers speed up at you when you are crossing.
These garbage truck do not respect traffic signs, pedestrian nor civilian motorists. Time after time I’ve seen Dept of sanitation and private sanitation trucks commit theses infractions. It’s always that someone has to die or get seriously injured for something to be done. These companies need to take accountability and that vision zero needs to be applied to city workers as well.
You weren’t there. You don’t know what happened. The truck driver very well could have been doing nothing wrong. You weren’t there.
They had the light and they were in the crosswalk. What more could they have done? You must be an imbecile!
The truck driver hit a pedestrian thereby not yielding to someone who has the right of way. The driver was exiting a commercial driveway which would lead one to believe the mom and her son were walking on the sidewalk and the driver didn’t look for pedestrians
How do you know he wasn’t there.
Does this mean that you were???
Don’t listen to OscarDeGrouch, he’s always on here playing devil’s advocate and it’s lame.
Yes, Garbage trucks and Cement trucks have killed several folks already in the last week. There needs to be a serious change and behavior in how these truck drivers behave. Always speeding, always making turns quick, when will it end?
Well, they’re big which means they’re always right in their mind
Too bad there was no infraction. Learn the facts before you speak. The was waiting at a light before pulling out of the driveway. His light turned green. He waited to let a group of pedestrians pass. After they passed, he began making his right turn onto 57th Ave and unfortunately, the mother and child tried to run and beat the truck. There is video that shows this. But, why let facts ruin your idiotic rant?