An MTA bus driver killed a senior on the Lower East Side this morning.
Anna Colon, 73, was crossing East Houston Street north to south at around 9:50 a.m. when the driver, who was also southbound, hit her while turning left from Avenue D onto East Houston, according to NYPD.
“[The light] was about to turn red when she was crossing the street,” a witness told the Daily News. “The bus was turning and it ran her over. The bus dragged her body for a few feet.”
Colon died at the scene. The NYPD public information office had no details on who had the right of way. A police spokesperson said the investigation was ongoing.
East Houston at Avenue D is a wide two-way street with concrete medians in the crosswalks. Drivers injured 15 people walking at the intersection between 2009 and 2015, and had injured one other person there this year as of August, according to city crash data.
Another witness told the News that speeding, inattentive bus drivers are a hazard in the area.
"I feel afraid every time I cross that corner. I hold my breath and keep an eye out for a bus," said local resident Rosalind Collazo. "The buses go fast and don't stop. It's not the buses, the cars go fast too. They do U-turns when they are not supposed to."
Today's crash was the first pedestrian fatality caused by an MTA bus driver in 2016, according to crash data compiled by Streetsblog.
The Amalgamated Transit Union says wide A pillars and poorly-designed mirrors on U.S. buses impede driver vision. The ATU has called for a design fix to reduce the number of pedestrians struck by bus drivers.
Anna Colon was killed in the 9th Precinct, where officers ticket an average of one motorist a day for failing to yield, and in the City Council district represented by Rosie Mendez.
