A state contractor inspecting a Queens (NYC) freeway was fatally struck by a driver in a multi-car pileup yesterday. According to authorities, the victim was inspecting a wall and was inside a work zone on the eastbound side of the Grand Central Parkway near 34th Ave. in North Corona when an eastbound driver struck a vehicle around 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.
The driver of that struck vehicle lost control, swerved, and crashed into the construction area, running over the contractor.
The worker, employed by the state Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens, where he later died. His name was not released at the time.
No charges were immediately filed against the drivers involved in the accident. The one who hit the contractor was taken to the same hospital with minor injuries, the Daily News noted.
“This tragic incident underscores the dangers our highway workers face as they work to improve our infrastructure,” said Joe Morrissey, NYSDOT spokesman. Coincidentally, the state department was scheduled to honor 58 workers killed in the line of duty in Syracuse today, its official Twitter account reported.
This tragic incident underscores the dangers our highway workers face as they work to improve our infrastructure.”
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Joe Morrissey, state Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) spokesman
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But 2022 was a grim year on New York’s asphalt in all five boroughs. According to the DOT, from Jan. 1 to July 31, some 150 people died in road crashes. Notably, 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, NYPD warned. At the end of that month, there was a tragic streak with an average of one person killed per hit-and-run daily.
In 2023, in addition to bicyclists, several pedestrians were killed in NYC, including three on a single night earlier this month, one of them a 62-year-old Hispanic man in East Harlem. Days later, an unlicensed driver fatally struck a teenage cyclist in Queens and fled.
In March, Elizabeth “Liz” Perez, a 60-year-old woman, was killed while crossing a street in Brooklyn (NYC) when she was struck by a young, unlicensed Hispanic driver 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.