New York City motorists killed three people walking over the holiday break.
At around 6 p.m. last Wednesday, November 25, an MTA express bus driver hit 41-year-old Rukhsana Khan on Ocean Avenue between Avenue J and Avenue K.
From the Daily News:
“The lady was in the middle of the street crossing,” said William Bizaldi, 64, who later discovered he had lived in the same building with the victim. “I heard like a boom and she looked like a plastic doll when she got hit.”
Albert Britton, 45, was onboard the bus at the time, and said the impact sounded like the bus “hitting a pothole.”
Khan, who had six children, was pronounced dead at New York Community Hospital.
Ocean Avenue is a wide, flat street, with four lanes for motor vehicle through-traffic at the location where Khan was struck. Video of the crash published by News 12 shows the bus driver traveling at a high rate of speed at the moment of impact. Video and photos taken at the scene showed that the bus was damaged on the front driver's side.
In a second report, the Daily News spoke with people who said the bus driver was speeding, and that reckless driving is common on Ocean Avenue.
Neighbors implored the city to crack down on fast drivers. Witnesses said the bus was speeding, and urged officials to install speed bumps near the site.
“This area right here, they come speeding, 60 or 65,” said Wanda Bizaldi, 52, a neighbor. “Whether she was right or wrong, that’s too fast. It’s a shame that she died right here in front of the building.”
Drivers have injured dozens of people on Ocean Avenue this year, according to DOT crash data. The 70th Precinct, where the crash occurred, issues an average of between one and two speeding tickets a day.
NYPD filed no charges against the bus driver who killed Rukhsana Khan. MTA bus drivers have killed five pedestrians and one cyclist in 2015, including three pedestrians in November, according to crash data tracked by Streetsblog.
A little over three hours after Khan was hit, a motorist killed a man in Long Island City.
The 54-year-old victim was crossing Van Dam Street west to east “in the marked crosswalk” when the driver, southbound on Van Dam, hit him with a Pontiac sedan, according to the Queens Courier.
A photo published by the Post showed extensive damage to the hood and windshield of the car, consistent with a high-speed impact.
The victim was pronounced dead at Cornell Medical Center. The NYPD public information office did not know the victim’s name and did not know if any charges were filed as of this afternoon. On Thursday the Post reported that "no criminality is suspected."
On Thursday at approximately 7:15 p.m., a driver in a Mercedes sedan left a trail of destruction on Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York, hitting and killing Yvette Molina, 56, as the victim was getting into her car, then striking at least three other vehicles as he attempted to leave the scene, according to Gothamist.
The driver, identified as 24-year-old Michael McBean, “attempted to carjack several people” while trying to evade police. Eight people were injured, Gothamist reported.
McBean was charged with 18 crimes and traffic offenses, according to court records, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and leaving the scene.
