Carnage

Driver Charged Under ROW Law After Killing Teresa Martinelli, 79, in Midtown

A senior hit by a driver in Midtown earlier this month has died. NYPD charged the driver with violating the victim's right of way.

By Brad Aaron

12:02 PM EDT on July 13, 2016

Teresa Martinelli was fatally injured by a motorist at Second Avenue and E. 58th Street on July 1. Image: Google Maps

A senior hit by a driver in Midtown earlier this month has died. NYPD charged the driver with violating the victim’s right of way.

Teresa Martinelli, 79, was “knocked out of her floral print shoes” when Mieczyslaw Truskowski hit her with a Toyota pick-up truck as she crossed at Second Avenue and E. 58th Street at around 11 a.m. on July 1, the Daily News reported.

“She was breathing but bleeding out of her ears and mouth,” a witness told the News. “Her feet were underneath the truck. One leg was mangled, the other broken. I rushed up to her but didn’t dare move her. I wanted to try to help if I could, but there wasn’t much help to give.”

The location of Truskowski’s truck in a Daily News photo suggests he was turning left from southbound Second onto E. 58th, which is one-way eastbound, when the collision occurred.

Martinelli was transported to New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical condition. The NYPD public information office told Streetsblog she died from her injuries.

Police arrested 63-year-old Truskowski and charged him with failing to yield, according to NYPD.

DOT’s proposed treatment for Second Avenue at E. 58th and E. 59th streets. Image: DOT — DOT’s proposed treatment for Second Avenue at E. 58th and E. 57th streets. Image: DOT

Forty-two people were injured in traffic crashes at Second Avenue and E. 58th from 2009 to 2015, according to city data. Eleven of the victims were pedestrians struck by motorists.

The crash site is located along the gap in the protected bike lane on Second Avenue, which DOT allowed to persist for years. Now the agency is moving forward to close some but not all of the gap, narrowing the crossing distance for pedestrians and adding a pedestrian island at this intersection.

Teresa Martinelli was killed in the 17th Precinct, and in the City Council district represented by Dan Garodnick, who has encouraged NYPD to concentrate on ticketing cyclists on the Upper East Side.

With reporting by David Meyer

Brad Aaron

Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.

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