Two Senior Pedestrians Are Killed — And No One is Charged

Two senior citizens were run down and killed by drivers in separate incidents, one in Queens and one in Harlem, police said on Friday. Neither driver was charged.

In the first incident, Rosvelt Bynum, 84, was crossing W. 125th Street at around 11 p.m. on Feb. 10 when he was run over at Lenox Avenue by the 57-year-old driver of a Mack truck that was traveling eastbound on Harlem's main thoroughfare.

The driver remained on the scene and was not charged. Bynum was taken to Harlem Hospital in critical condition. He died on Thursday.

The next day, Masae Takeda, 66, was killed by the driver of a 2019 Infinity SUV as she crossed 57th Avenue at in Elmhurst, Queens, at around 11:15 a.m. The driver, who was not identified, struck and killed her as he turned onto 57th Avenue from Van Horn Street. Police offered no other information about this case, but the New York Post reported that the driver was a cabbie. [Update: The Taxi and Limousine Commission told Streetsblog that the driver's license to operate a cab was immediately suspended.]

Both Harlem and Elmhust are extremely dangerous places for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.

Last year, along just 125th Street between First and Amsterdam avenues in Harlem, there were 500 crashes, injuring 16 cyclists, 46 pedestrians and 97 motorists.

And in Elmhurst, there were 1,840 crashes, injuring 58 cyclists, 146 pedestrians and 284 motorists.