Another Senior Is Killed By Uncharged Driver On Bell Boulevard

6:04 PM EST on February 24, 2020

The intersection of Bell Boulevard and 48th Avenue, where a driver hit and killed a senior on Sunday. Photo: Google

Another senior citizen has been run over and killed on Bell Boulevard in Queens — and the driver was once again not charged.

Cops say the 60-year-old driver of a 2006 Ford van turned left onto Bell Boulevard from 48th Avenue at around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday when he struck 88-year-old Dolores Soho.

The driver, who was not charged, remained on the scene. Police on Monday could not answer questions about whether the driver was speeding or distracted — or provide any more details about the crash.

Sunday’s fatality is the second on Bell Boulevard in just three weeks. On Feb. 6, another driver hit 64-year-old Deborah Scherer as she was crossing near 75th Avenue. Scherer died from her injuries three days later. The driver was uncharged.

On just the 1.3-mile stretch of Bell Boulevard between 48th and 75th Avenues, there have been 105 crashes, causing 29 total injuries, including to one cyclist and six pedestrians, since February, 2018, according to Crash Mapper.

Soho is now the 13th person age 65 or older to be killed by a driver in New York this year. Last year, seniors were among the most vulnerable road users — in 2019, at least 47 people age 65 or above were killed by someone behind the wheel. That's 40 percent of all pedestrian victims.

Julianne Cuba @julcuba

Julianne Cuba joined Streetsblog in February, 2019, after three years covering local news and politics at The Brooklyn Paper. There, she also covered the notoriously reckless private carting industry and hit-and-runs. A 2015 graduate of Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism Master’s Program, she lives in Brooklyn. Julianne is on Twitter at @julcuba. Email Julianne at julianne@streetsblog.org

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