Hit-and-Run Driver Kills 16-Year-Old Girl on 40 MPH Queens Speedway
A hit-and-run driver killed a teenage girl in Rosedale early Wednesday morning.
The 16-year-old victim was crossing Sunrise Highway at Francis Lewis Boulevard in the crosswalk at around 12:15 a.m. when she was hit by the driver of a van, who was traveling east on the highway, according to Gothamist. The Daily News reported that the vehicle was a dollar van.
The girl was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital. Police had not released her identity as of Wednesday afternoon, and no arrests had been made, NYPD told Streetsblog.
WCBS reported that the speed limit on Francis Lewis Boulevard is 25 miles per hour, but it's 40 mph on Sunrise Highway.
Krystina Tucker and her 5-year-old daughter cross there almost every day, CBS2’s Janelle Burrell reported.
“I’ve had a couple incidents where I’m almost hit walking with her to school,” Tucker said.
“They just fly around it [the turn] … there’s cars stopped at the light, they don’t want to wait.”
Another local said motorists often speed on Sunrise, making it more dangerous to cross.
“You have to stop and look around otherwise to cross someone is going to kill you,” [Jean] Charles said.
Even with the crossing light, residents say getting across the four lanes of traffic and the median can be difficult.
“Because it’s so wide, by the time you reach halfway in the road the light’s amber so you have to run to get across,” said Shelline McCook.
The victim was at least the fourth person killed by a hit-and-run driver while walking or biking in NYC in the first six weeks of 2016, according to crash data compiled by Streetsblog. The vast majority of city drivers who kill people and leave the scene are never prosecuted.
This fatal crash occurred in the 105th Precinct, where local officers ticketed 706 speeding drivers in 2015, and in the City Council district represented by Donovan Richards.
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