Pedestrian Killed by Hit-and-Run Truck Driver at Union Square This Morning

A 21-year-old woman was killed by the driver of a dump truck in a hit-and-run crash at Union Square early today.

According to reports the woman was walking east across Broadway at 14th Street, in the crosswalk and with the light, when the truck driver, also heading east, made a right turn. The driver continued south on Broadway.

From the Daily News:

“He didn’t see her. It was a big truck, a dump truck,” said William Cayame, 22. “The light was for her. She had the walk sign,” he said.

“She fell on the floor. I just heard the sound, like bones breaking,” Cayame said, “It was awful.”

Another witness said he had just come out of a nearby drugstore and heard the awful sound of the woman being crushed.

“I heard the noise. I heard her get hit — boom,” said Rudy Dearaujo, 42. “I saw the police coming from the park and everybody standing here by her body. They were checking her pulse.”

The crash occurred at around 1:30 a.m. The victim, whose name has not been released, died at Beth Israel Hospital.

The News posted a photo of a truck with its coverage, though it’s unclear how the picture relates to the story.

  • Anonymous

    “He didn’t see her. It was a big truck, a dump truck,” said William Cayame, 22

    A) William Cayame, Professional Mindreader, able to tell from a distance what others can see and not see.
    B) If you “can’t see”  21-year-old woman walking with the light in a brightly lit section of a major city, why are you driving a dump truck?

  • another one!? my god does Mayor Bloomberg and police chief Kelly not see the blatantly obvious epidemic on our city streets this week? If multiple gunman were on a killing spree this week, the city would shut down and everything would change. But when multiple drivers recklessly ride over bikes & peds this week, ‘no criminality is suspected.’?! I feel like the guy from Network who goes crazy screaming ‘I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!!!’

  • Patrick

    The private garbage contractors that speed around downtown late at night are incredibly reckless. They consistently blow through red lights, reverse the wrong way down entire blocks and avenues, and stop in crosswalks and park across sidewalks. I know people on bikes that have been nearly run off the Bowery by these trucks at 2 and 3 am. They drive worse than any cab, and the trucks are massive. 

  • David Bloom

    Outrageous.  I see these trucks tearing around the corners at nite. I walk around late at nite and see very dangerous behavior. Even if you look all around you do not see these guys speeding and turning.  why do we just accept this daily carnage??  NYC is the most 3rd world country there is today

  • fj

    The pedestrian density in Union Square is way to great to allow cars.  Wonder if this was one of the streets originally to be closed of to cars. Cars should be eliminated from Union Square.

  • Anonymous

    “According to reports the woman was walking east across Broadway at 14th Street, in the crosswalk and with the light, when the truck driver, also approaching from the east, made a right turn. The driver continued south on Broadway.”

    If the truck made a right turn onto Broadway, then it was approaching from the west, not from the east. It was “also” going east, like the victim.

  • Jeff

    I suspect criminality.

  • @qrt145:disqus Thanks — fixed.

  • Ben Kintisch

    I couldn’t agree more with Paco’s post. Mayor Bloomberg has been a great leader in terms of making the streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists, but he has been horrible in terms of pressing HIS NYPD to investigate vehicular homicide. Just yesterday a famous actor was rundown on Broadway….I wonder if it will take the death or maiming of a more famous celebrity/politician/diplomat for the NYPD and the Mayor’s office to really take heed. We saw that happen in the case of Marilyn Dershowitz, whose famous relative Alan Dershowitz knew how to work the press. But when it’s just another innocent regular New Yorker, no one in our government seems to care much.

  • Anonymous

    @dporpentine:disqus  I think the guy quoted here is the same guy I saw interviewed on NY1 this morning, and if so, the tone seemed to suggest that he thought the driver was at fault for not seeing her.  If people said “he should have seen her” in this situation, it would more clearly indicate that the speaker doesn’t know what the driver saw, but that the speaker believes a prudent driver would have seen the pedestrian.

    I think also that the guy was implying that he didn’t see her because the alternative would be to suggest that he saw her and ran her over anyway, and people would rather suggest dangerous recklessness than outright malice.

  • Chris O’Leary

    Just reminding everyone what the NYCDOT thinks of pedestrians who legally cross with the light when traffic is turning.

  • Anonymous

    @JoshNY:disqus I think that there’s another option between absolutely not seeing her and seeing her and running over her anyway: the dump truck driver could have seen her but calculated that if he kept going, she’d stop. That way he’d “win” the light and get to the next light faster–the dream, it seems, of all New York drivers. For whatever reason, that didn’t turn out the way he thought it would, so he kept going.

    After all, the dump truck driver might be so ignorant as to think there would be negative consequences to killing a pedestrian.

  • Anonymous

    @dporpentine:disqus True, I suppose you’re right.  The level of recklessness that’s just plain tolerated never ceases to amaze me.

  • Stacy

    I see these guys whenever I’m out late at night. They run red lights, back up on one way streets, block crosswalks and often back up onto the curb so as not to have to walk as far. There was even an incident, not all that long ago, where a driver ran over his own coworker. If the driver couldn’t see a pedestrian, in the crosswalk, crossing with the light, then we shouldn’t allow these kinds of trucks to be operated on city streets.

  • According to a commenter on Gothamist, an hour before this crash there were 4 protesters right there.

    And 75 police officers keeping an eye on them. 

  • nycgirl

    Its not right of all these coverages to put a companies truck on these pictures it makes the truck company look guilty when in fact it is not that companies fault but as it states another dump truck company. they were checking all trucks last night in that area newsday posted.

  • knicksfan4eva

    i thought it was the truck company in the picture. its not?

  • Eric McClure

    Condolences to Roxanna Sorina-Buta’s family and friends.  S**t’s gotta stop.  If the NYPD isn’t going to charge killer drivers, and DAs aren’t going to investigate, what’s the City Council going to do about it?

  • Milamunoz

    Roxi sorina was a great friend n neighbor of mine. I mourn her loss n the grief her family is going thru . i only pray that they find the driver .

  • Nonosays

    This beautiful girl was a close friend of mydaughter. She was a talented actress and a loyal friend. She was literally ripped from the world, and her friends, family and coworkers are devastated. Where is the killer?! Has the city no way to locate a garbage truck driver? Incredible! This innocent girl must have justice!

  • I was shocked how that happened without a clear statement from the local government , what happened to Roxi could happen to anyone of us, does any one know any facebook , email or phone number that I can contact her friends or family where I can present my warm condolences?.

  • Nonosays

    My daughter Lily was her best friend. She can give your condolences to her family
    lilycdepaula@Gmail.com

  • Anonymous

    @f0dac7dab758d8f86574cb093a0c16e0:disqus    I doubt any of us who’ve never gone through such a thing can understand
    the full dimensions of what the family of your daughter’s friend is
    going through, but if you are in contact with them, you might suggest they read about the
    families of other victims of similarly outrageous crimes here in New
    York in order to understand how hard they are likely to have to fight to get even a smidgen of justice.

    These are two of the cases I’m thinking of:
    Mathieu Lefevre
    http://www.streetsblog.org/2012/01/04/family-of-mathieu-lefevre-sues-nypd-for-withholding-crash-information/
    (That’s just one article. There are many, many more.)
    Rasha Shamoon
    http://www.streetsblog.org/2012/02/14/driver-cleared-by-nypd-found-negligent-in-death-of-cyclist-rasha-shamoon/
    (Again, many more articles.)

    An alternative is being probably the most famous lawyer in the country. That seems to get the police working with you pretty quickly:
    http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/07/08/alan-dershowitz-vance-dragging-his-feet-on-fatal-crash-investigation/

  • I have stayed all over the world, travel for business regularly, consider myself a reasonable person, and never write complaints, but I felt compelled to write this one for the sanity of any future guests at the Quincy. 

  • State laws vary, but in some states, a law requires drivers to slow down when driving around garbage trucks. Michigan passed this law to reduce the likelihood of drivers hitting garbage trucks.

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