Oscar Nieves died at the age of 62 when he was walking and was struck by the driver of a gray SUV hit-and-run in a crosswalk in East Harlem, Manhattan (NYC).
Nieves was crossing Third Ave. in the crosswalk at E. 122nd St., very close to his home in Taino Towers, when he was hit around 7:25 p.m. Wednesday, NYPD said.
Medics rushed him to Harlem Hospital, where he died, the Daily News detailed. He was the first of three men to be killed Wednesday night in NYC in a span of just four hours.
Two of the drivers involved in those three fatalities fled and have not been apprehended. Anyone with information should call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and in Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), also via crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by text message to 274637 (CRIMES), followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.
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In addition to gun violence, traffic accidents are another major 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 fatalities by 2024.
But 2022 was a grim year on New York’s asphalt in all five boroughs. From January 1 to July 31, some 150 people died in road crashes, according to the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT). Particularly 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 every day.