Carnage

More Blood Spills in Queens, as Pedestrian is Killed and Driver (You Guessed It) is Not Charged

The only way to ensure the safety of pedestrians in Flushing is to dramatically reduce the number of motorized vehicles on its jam packed roadways.

By Gersh Kuntzman

9:42 AM EST on December 20, 2019

More Blood Spills in Queens, as Pedestrian is Killed and Driver (You Guessed It) is Not Charged

This is a common scene on Sanford Avenue: A double-parked truck (left) and a big van obscuring pedestrians on the sidewalk as a car driver pulls into a garage. The only way to ensure pedestrian safety in Flushing is to dramatically restrict motorized vehicles. Photo: Google

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Turns out, Thursday was even bloodier than we originally knew.

Police announced this morning that a Queens senior had died from his injuries suffered when he was hit by a driver — on a sidewalk! — in deadly Flushing.

According to cops, Zhisheng Lin, 67, was walking on the sidewalk of Sanford Avenue just west of dangerous Main Street on Wednesday morning at around 8:35 when he was struck by the 69-year-old driver of a 2008 Volkswagen Jetta as the driver, whose name was not released, made a right turn into a parking garage.

“In the course of doing so, the vehicle operator struck the pedestrian, knocking him to the roadway,” the police statement said. “There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing.”

The driver remained on the scene. Lin was taken to NY Presbyterian Hospital – Queens, where he died the next day. On the same day, at least two other people were run over by truck drivers (neither of whom was charged).

Flushing remains one of the most dangerous places in the city for pedestrians. Flushing, the still-beating heart of anti-cycling Council Member Peter Koo’s district, has suffered from 4,802 reported crashes this year — roughly 14 per day in just Flushing alone! — injuring 75 cyclists, 288 pedestrians, and 837 motorists, with two pedestrians and two motorists dying. On an average day in Flushing, three people are injured in vehicular crashes.

Very little has changed since January, when Streetsblog wrote, “Flushing is Most Dangerous Place to Walk in Queens — So Where is Council Member Peter Koo?” to highlight how little the Council Member had done in 2018, when seven pedestrians were killed in his district, all but one in Flushing.

Main Street is the epicenter of carnage in Flushing, which is why many advocates are calling for cars to be banned from the roadway to ease passage for pedestrians and transit users. Koo is not among them.

We’ve reached out to Koo today and will update this story if he responds.

Gersh Kuntzman

Tabloid legend Gersh Kuntzman has been with New York newspapers since 1989, including stints at the New York Daily News, the Post, the Brooklyn Paper and even a cup of coffee with the Times. He's also the writer and producer of "Murder at the Food Coop," which was a hit at the NYC Fringe Festival in 2016, and “SUV: The Musical” in 2007. He also writes the Cycle of Rage column, which is archived here.