UPDATE: From a very reliable sounding account in the comments section:
I was walking to the Q and heard the crash, saw a sneaker go flying about twenty feet in the air. I was the first person there. A teenage girl was unconscious on the ground with a pretty severe head injury. She'd been knocked down by a woman driving a toyota camry who stopped immediately. The girl was jaywalking. I called 911, checked her pulse. She was breathing and had a steady pulse. Big crowd gathered around, including some of her friends/family members. She started waking up/trying to move and a couple of us held her to keep her in place. She may have had a broken arm/shoulder as well, but I was most concerned about the head/neck. It appeared that she had hit her head very hard on the pavement. Police came within about 5 minutes and took over the scene. The girl was conscious but clearly very badly injured when I left. No idea her name. I really hope she can pull through. It was horrifying. Please, please be careful crossing around that intersection.
16 comments:
In regards to the pedestrian vs car accident on Parkside between Ocean Ave and Flatbush.
I asked a police officer who was at the intersection what happened. This was his report.
A young women was jaywalking, one car stopped to let her cross, the car behind that car went around the stopped car and hit the pedistrian. When I talked to him about 7pm, he said the women was in critical condition at Kings County Hospital, he was doubtful she was going to make it through.
-shelley
That's terrible news. Unfortunately it comes as no surprise. That stretch of road (and adjacent blocks) seems to attract unpredictable pedestrians and people who should not be allowed behind the wheel of a car. Continual traffic violations in our neighborhood - ignoring red lights, double-parking, take your pick - should be added to the long list of anti-social behavior that blights the area. Has the police ever communicated their thoughts on this problem?
I live on Parkside Court and I heard a girl was hit by a car but that's all I know so far.
I was walking to the Q and heard the crash, saw a sneaker go flying about twenty feet in the air. I was the first person there. A teenage girl was unconscious on the ground with a pretty severe head injury. She'd been knocked down by a woman driving a toyota camry who stopped immediately. The girl was jaywalking. I called 911, checked her pulse. She was breathing and had a steady pulse. Big crowd gathered around, including some of her friends/family members. She started waking up/trying to move and a couple of us held her to keep her in place. She may have had a broken arm/shoulder as well, but I was most concerned about the head/neck. It appeared that she had hit her head very hard on the pavement. Police came within about 5 minutes and took over the scene. The girl was conscious but clearly very badly injured when I left. No idea her name. I really hope she can pull through. It was horrifying. Please, please be careful crossing around that intersection.
Awful. Thoughts with this girl and hope she pulls through. It is a terrible idea to jaywalk across a particularly dangerous street especially but about the driver -- likely the woman driver is just stupid. She was unable to logically reason out what was going on and act appropriately. Seriously, if a car ahead of you is stopped DON'T YOU THINK THEY ARE STOPPED FOR A REASON? This happens to us way more than it should when crossing on our right of way in the crosswalk - a car turning stops for us and the complete dimwit behind them blows their horn annoyed they stopped because they don't see us yet as we're blocked from view. IT'S A CROSSWALK. So golly, huh, when you think about it maybe somebody is walking through that crosswalk.
But it wasn't a cross walk the girl was crossing in- it was the middle of the street! Which as a driver and a pedestrian in this neighborhood scares me greatly. People seem to think they can cross where ever the heck they please and that the drivers will anticipate people popping out of almost nowhere and just be able to stop. I have near misses with pedestrians almost daily and I like to think I'm not a nimwit female driver! So as sorry as I am for the girl in critical condition I cannot see blaming the driver exclusively for her accident. People need to use the crosswalks. That is what they are for:safe crossing. Perhaps a campaign for safe crossing and against jay walking is in order. Because teenagers and the elderly and everyone in between seem to have no clue how to cross a street safely in Flatbush! And we can't blame drivers for this!
I can't find any city stats on the number of cars injured or killed by pedestrians. The poor and often unlawful driving needs to be addressed first. Good way of raising revenue for the city.
12:16, all that is true and I am terrified when I drive that I will hit a jaywalker too. But in this case reports say one car stopped for the girl and when the 2nd car came up to the stopped car, rather than wait and see why the car was stopped and for whom or what, it veered around the first car and drove right into the girl. I've had a lot more driving experience than most NY'ers having driven cross country many times since I was a teenager and that's bad driving. Period. Most of all, it's not a question of what a driver can be charged with or who is at fault but why on earth would they not do everything they can to avoid hitting a person and maiming or killing them? Just for the sake of humanity? That's what disturbs me. Too many drivers seem utterly sociopathic.
Wait, how did a post about two traffic accidents turn into a comment thread about "female drivers"?
Also, as much as pedestrians need to be mindful, cars are by far the more deadly part of the equation and therefore need to be extra careful not to hit anyone. Ever.
The driver who went around the stopped car and hit that poor girl was undoubtedly a terrible driver, but the other driver who stopped actually shares part of the blame (as does the girl who was jay walking). When I learned to drive I was told to NEVER stop and wave a pedestrian who was jay walking, or crossing against the light, on--precisely because some other driver might hit them. The best thing for the first driver would have been to slow and warn the girl with his/her horn, only stopping if the pedestrian remained oblivious. It seems to me that it took three idiots to produce this tragedy.
Given that nearly all car service, taxi and dollar van drivers are male, I think the overwhelming evidence would be that gender is not useful when stereotyping drivers. Except that clearly it is. Reckless driving has always been a man's world, ever since the first time they obtained a toy vehicle. Further, the defining attribute among the men, I wholly contend, is whether or not the male driver is wearing boxers or briefs. Bunching, as any man will tell you, has a huge influence over one's ability to judge distances and apply pressure to brakes.
Oh, and cell phones.
A tragedy is a tragedy. Be careful out there, everyone. DOT's traffic study can't come too soon, with remedies of course.
At first I thought it was a drive by shooting, but I didn't hear shots so I was obviously misinformed.
Thank you for the clarification. I live on Parkside Ave. and Ocean Ave. and could see the scene. The police and the driver that hit the lady were there until 10pm. Due to the closing of Parkside Ave. the traffic at the surrounding streets became heavily congested.
It is not right to jaywalk, but it is also not right to be impatient. I hope that driver gets fined. And as to the lady that was struck, I hope she survives. What a tragedy. This is why you should always walk to the end of the street. Patience is something both parties did not have.
The police tape is still dangling and some NYPD cars are still momentarily stationed around Parkside.
There is much talk about the woman that passed the first stopped car and calling her names and judging her intelligence. Did anyone that is posting these comments SEE the incident? NO! The fact is, both parties are equally at fault. In the drivers defense, this is NY City. The land of people PARKING and STANDING wherever they please. That stretch between Ocean and Flatbush is constantly blocked by drivers stopping to run into thr bodegas, Pioneer, the Gyro place, and the subway. If you are a driver, you KNOW that if you were to sit behind every stopped car. You would never get anywhere. And...I drive that stretch many times a day and people walk right out into the road WITHOUT LOOKING!! The other day a guy walked off the curb right in front of me while looking the opposite direction. We should not be judging people. We should all be doing the right thing, which in this case CLEARLY 2 PEOPLE WERE NOT. THAT is WHY these things happen. If the pedestrian were doing what she should have been doing, she would not have been hit. If the driver was driving attentively, again, the incident would have been avoided. I am really sickened by those that want to take sides and judge with NO FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE and based on emotion rather than FACT. Get a grip people! If that were your girlfriend, your mom, your sister, your aunt, your best friend....I wonder if you would be calling her stupid. I also wonder how many of those that posted have ever driven a car. Maybe you are a pedestrian that feels "bullet proof" and that rules and safe practices don't apply to you.
1:56 well yeah, we're commenting on what we've heard within hours after the accident, not what has been announced weeks later as the confirmed facts.
Gotta echo calls for more patience and (literally) street smarts from all involved, but also suggest that the traffic light at Parkside and Ocean needs to be changed. Sadly the pedestrian "walk" signs have to be treated as a cautionary "maybe", due to cars racing down ocean trying to make their green light, not thinking that gee, the pedestrians have a "green" now too. Cars can make that slightly obtuse angle turn at 30+mph easily, and that's more than enough to kill someone. I don't wish more traffic on my fellow Leffertsians (?) but perhaps that should be a "right turn on green arrow only" intersection, or better yet, one of the all-cross-same-time ones. ??
actually, there was a THIRD person struck at around 7pm that evening at ocean and parkside! my neighbor was crossing ocean (eastward) with the light and a car service car hit him. that light is a deathtrap because pedestrians have the right of way at the same time that the turning lane is allowed to make blind turns from parkside onto ocean. he's doing ok, very bruised up with a (probably) broken wrist. what a crazy day!
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