Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
MTA

MTA Bus Driver Arrested For Killing a Pedestrian

File photo: Wayne Carrington

An MTA bus driver was arrested after killing an 81-year-old pedestrian on Wednesday night as she crossed Bay Parkway — with the light and in a crosswalk.

Police said B6 driver Audley Smith, 62, turned right from Stillwell Avenue at around 8:07 p.m. and slammed into Yu Qing Chen. When police arrived, they found Chen "unresponsive with head trauma." She died later at Maimonides Hospital.

Smith was charged with  failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care — both misdemeanors punishable by up to 30 days in jail, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.

An MTA source said the bus was out of service at the time.

“This is a terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to Ms. Chen’s family,” New York City Transit President Andy Byford said in a statement.

The numbers of such deaths under the wheels of MTA buses has dropped dramatically since the City Council criminalized failure to yield in 2014 via Council Intro 238, which was opposed bitterly by the transit workers' union. Before the law passed, police were not even investigating crashes that hurt New Yorkers unless officers personally witnessed the collision or the victim was deemed likely to die, Streetsblog reported.

But it is not always meted out uniformly. The MTA bus driver who killed 7-year-old Shevon Bethea on Webster Avenue in the Bronx earlier this year was not charged.

Earlier this year, the Post reported that MTA buses were involved in more than 21,000 crashes or "other mishaps" since 2015 — an average of 23 per day. Those "mishaps" led to the deaths of 14 people, the newspaper reporter, though not all were pedestrians.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

NYPD’s Push To Criminalize Cycling Spells Trouble For Immigrant Workers

Safety for the community? Great. But aren't delivery workers part of the community, too?

May 9, 2025

Friday’s Headlines: Habemus Knicksum Edition

It was a big day yesterday, but we're not on the sports or the religion desk, so let's get to our news.

May 9, 2025

Friday Video: Who Ruined Outdoor Dining?

We sent our own video team to find out.

May 9, 2025

Decision 2025: Mayoral Hopefuls Discuss E-Bikes … With Joy and Concern

E-bikes are a vital tool for delivery workers and for people seeking to reduce their use of private cars. What would you do to both expand e-bike use and make streets safer? And the answers are...

Live from Albany: Hochul’s ‘Safety’ Measures Stripped from Budget

Lawmakers dropped three initiatives that Gov. Hochul said would have made roadways safer (though, as we'll see, that's very much in question). Let's review them.

May 9, 2025
See all posts