Pedestrian Killed in Three-Car Crash — Speeding Driver Charged

A Brooklyn woman doing nothing but walking near her Midwood home was struck and killed on Sunday night after a speeding driver ran a red light and crashed into another car that went careening into the victim, police said.

At around 7:20 p.m., Mariya Ursachenko was crossing Ocean Avenue with the light and in the crosswalk at the intersection of Avenue J. That's when the driver of a 2015 Kia Optima, heading southbound on Ocean Avenue at "an apparent high rate of speed," according to cops, ran a red light and smashed into an eastbound 2015 Lexus E35, which was knocked into Ursachenko, slamming the 58-year-old woman to the pavement.

She later died at Maimonides Medical Center. The driver of the Lexus was lightly injured.

Meanwhile, the Kia slammed into another car. Its driver, Mohammed Nasim, initially fled, but was later caught, cops said. He was charged with multiple counts, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, vehicular assault, failure to yield to a pedestrian, a red light violation, failure to exercise due care, speeding and reckless driving — similar charges that can be applied, but rarely are, to almost any crash involving a driver and an injured or killed pedestrian.

A spokesman for the NYPD declined to say how the agency was able to charge Nasim so quickly or how cops knew he was speeding and had run a red light — information that is rarely provided in other fatal crashes.

The area of the 70th Precinct comprising Ocean Avenue, Coney Island Avenue and Ocean Parkway — three streets with notorious speeding — is one of the most dangerous areas in the city. In 2019 alone, in the 25-block zone centered on Avenue J, there were 392 crashes, injuring five cyclists, 32 pedestrians and 101 motorists, according to Crash Mapper.

The single intersection in question — Avenue J at Ocean Avenue — has been the scene of 24 crashes since January, 2019, injuring four pedestrians and 21 motorists.