A pedestrian who was hit just a block from Citi Field a few hours before an August Mets home game by a reckless driver has died of his injuries — the latest crash around the athletic danger zone.
Richard Wasley Jr. of Washington Heights was 77.
It is unclear is Wasley was headed to the game, which was exactly three hours after the 4:10 p.m. crash at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and 114th Street. According to cops, Wasley was crossing 114th Street in the crosswalk when the driver of a 2012 Chevy Traverse, making a left turn from Roosevelt Avenue, struck him, causing severe head trauma.
Wasley was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens and died on Monday. The driver remained on the scene and was issued a ticket for failure to yield. Police declined to provide the 46-year-old driver's name, but added, "The investigation remains ongoing."
Police also could not say if Wasley was headed to the Mets game that night or whether he was in the area because of some connection to then-first-place Amazin's.
But one thing is clear: the presence of Citi Field is a serious safety problem for the neighborhood between Corona and Flushing.
According to city crash statistics for the stadium superblock, plus a one-square-block area along Roosevelt Avenue to the west of the stadium, there are roughly 100 percent more crashes in the roughly six months of the baseball season (April through September) than there are in the six months of the off-season (October through March). And there are 77 percent more injuries.
Council District 21, where the crash occurred and where Citi Field is located, has significantly more traffic than the citywide average, according to city data collected by Spatial Equity NYC. The district has roughly 36 million vehicles per kilometer, which is 17 percent more than the city average. It is also the poorest district in all of Queens.
