Cops are searching for the hit-and-run driver of an SUV who fatally struck a Brooklyn pedestrian early on Thursday morning on a Bedford-Stuyvesant street that was literally hours from getting a long-delayed safety redesign.
The speeding driver was heading northbound on Bedford Avenue at around 3:10 a.m. when he struck Felix Mendez, 49, who had just exited a bodega with his purchases and was crossing in the crosswalk with the light.
The video, obtained by Streetsblog, shows that the driver was traveling so quickly that Mende was tossed high in the air before landing back on the car hood and being tossed to the side of the road as the killer drove off.
Cops said Mendez sufffered head and body trauma and was taken to Methodist Hospital in Park Slope, where he died.
"It's just shit, man," said a local shopowner who had seen the video. "The guy goes out to get some food and he's crossing a street and gets mowed down by some asshole driver.”
Roughly 24 hours after the crash, the Department of Transportation repainted that stretch of Bedford to narrow the roadway to one lane and add a protected bike lane, a configuration known as a road diet that has proven to improve safety because the narrower road encourages drivers to slow down.
Activists had called for years for Bedford Avenue to get such a treatment — and, indeed, the city finally listened more than a year ago, only to delay its own timeline, a delay that is implicated in Thursday's killing.
“When it comes to safer streets, New Yorkers can’t afford to wait," said Elizabeth Adams, the interim co-executive director at Transportation Alternatives, which oversaw the "Better Bedford" campaign that finally bore fruit this week.
By ignoring its own timeline, the city left the street dangerous "well past the initially promised end date of late 2023," Adams added. "It’s clear that delaying projects has a real cost. ... All projects that are delayed or moving slowly need attention today so tragedies like these are prevented across the city."
The city is in the midst of a pedestrian death crisis, with 84 pedestrians fatally struck this year through Oct. 6, according to the NYPD — up from 70 in the same period last year.
And over the same period this year, 6,424 pedestrians have been injured — or roughly 23 pedestrians every day. That's up 3 percent from last year.
There have been 26 pedestrian deaths in Brooklyn, up from 16 over the same period last year, an increase of 62.5 percent.
DOT has said its redesign of Bedford will make the roadway safer. Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 7 of this year, there were 86 reported crashes in just the mile-long stretch of Bedford between Atlantic and Myrtle avenues, injuring seven cyclists, 10 pedestrians and 23 motorists, killing one pedestrian, according to city stats.
We will check the same period next year.
This story was updated to reflect the NYPD's release of the victim's name.
