A Manhattan man who was struck by the driver of a new SUV last week as he legally crossed Seventh Avenue in Times Square in a crosswalk has died. The driver was not charged.
According to the NYPD, the driver of a gray 2020 Nissan Pathfinder was driving west on W. 43rd Street at around 12:40 a.m. on Sept. 24 and made a left turn onto Seventh Avenue with the light — but that also means that pedestrian Richard Brode, 69, who was crossing Seventh Avenue from west to east in the so-called Crossroads of the World, also had the light with him. A police spokesman later confirmed that the pedestrian signal was still flashing in Brode's favor — it had not yet frozen in the red "don't walk" mode. (It is unclear why that detail was left out of the original NYPD statement.)
Nonetheless, the driver, a 41-year-old male whose name was not released, hit Brode, knocking him to the pavement. He suffered head trauma and was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he died the next day (though cops were not told until Sept. 30, an NYPD spokesperson said).
It is unclear why the driver was not charged with failure to yield or failure to exercise due care, two basic traffic violations that apply to virtually all such crashes.
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
