UPDATE: Pedestrian Killed by Driver on Busy Brooklyn Street — And Driver is Charged
A Brooklyn woman was struck and killed by a driver early Tuesday morning in a crash at an intersection where snow had still not been properly cleared — and the NYPD said on Wednesday that the driver had been charged.
Police offered only scant information: At around 6:55 a.m., the 64-year-old pedestrian was “in the vicinity” of Foster Avenue and E. 17th Street when the 57-year-old driver of a gray Chevy came “into contact” with the victim, knocking her to the pavement and causing body trauma. The woman was taken to Kings County Hospital, where she died, becoming at least the 12th pedestrian to die so far this year. The driver remained at the scene and was not initially charged (update: but on Wednesday, the NYPD said it had charged Gale Grey-Lawrence of Brooklyn with the minor charges of failure to yield, running a red light and failure to exercise due care).
Neither police nor the Department of Transportation would give Streetsblog key details about the crash, including the direction of the driver or the pedestrian, or which one had the light. The NYPD said the car in question was a sedan, but a video obtained by Streetsblog showed that it was a much larger car, and the driver was clearly culpable.
In the video, the pedestrian (in an off-white winter coat) is seen moving westbound on the north sidewalk of Foster Avenue. When she gets to the intersection of E. 17th Street, she stops for the light and for cars moving north on E. 17th Street. When the light turns green, she slowly makes her way through the narrow cut in the snow, and then is struck by a driver who did not yield. (The video is here. Warning: it is graphic. A still photo is below.)
In another video shared with Streetsblog by a local business owner, the driver of the gray Chevy is seen making an illegal U-turn on Foster Avenue seconds before the crash.
Hours later, police tape at the scene revealed that snow had still not been properly removed from the intersection.
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