Driver of N.Y.P.D. Van Hits and Kills a Pedestrian in Brooklyn

The driving force of a New York Metropolis Police Division van struck and killed a person standing within the heart median of a Brooklyn thoroughfare Thursday evening, the police mentioned.

The automobile was touring west on Japanese Parkway close to Schenectady Avenue in Crown Heights simply after 8 p.m. when it struck the 53-year-old man, the police mentioned.

He was rushed to Kings County Hospital Middle in Brooklyn, the place he was pronounced useless. The police didn’t establish the sufferer or the driving force.

4 individuals who have been beneath arrest have been being transported within the van to the 77th Precinct when the incident occurred. The division’s press workplace didn’t instantly present extra particulars in regards to the collision.

The person was killed amid a years-long effort to scale back the demise toll on town’s streets and sidewalks. Former Mayor Invoice de Blasio seven years in the past started the initiative, which he known as Imaginative and prescient Zero. But it surely has struggled to enhance security for cyclists and walkers.

Certainly, New York Metropolis final yr noticed its highest ranges of visitors fatalities in practically a decade. And the 77th Precinct, which covers parts of Crown Heights and Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, has among the many highest charges of recorded visitors accidents relative to its inhabitants of all metropolis police precincts up to now this yr, with 15 pedestrians and 46 motorists injured, none of them fatally, by the top of February.

Twenty-nine pedestrians have been killed in motorized vehicle collisions throughout town from Jan. 1 by March 19, in accordance with probably the most just lately obtainable knowledge. There have been 25 pedestrians killed in motorized vehicle collisions throughout the identical timeframe final yr, and 129 in all of 2021.

Mayor Eric Adams vowed in January to revamp Imaginative and prescient Zero, and the Division of Transportation introduced that it could make design enhancements to 1,000 intersections citywide, prioritizing areas the place individuals have been killed or significantly injured.

The Police Division additionally mentioned it could additional implement guidelines for drivers who don’t heed pedestrians who’re crossing the road.