Motorist Kills 65-Year-Old Man on Main Street in Flushing

A motorist killed a senior last week on Main Street in Flushing. The victim was at least the fifth person killed while walking or biking this year on a street the city knows to be especially dangerous.

The 65-year-old victim was crossing Main at 58th Avenue at around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 11, when the driver hit him with a Dodge minivan, according to the Daily News. The victim sustained head trauma and died at New York-Presbyterian/Queens hospital.

NYPD told the News and other media outlets the victim was crossing Main Street west to east “just south of the crosswalk” when he “stopped on the double yellow line and stepped backward into the southbound lane,” where he was struck.

While police detailed the victim’s movements and implied the deceased pedestrian was at fault, they provided no information on the motorist’s actions. Damage to the minivan indicated the victim’s body was thrown against the windshield — an indication of high-speed impact — but NYPD didn’t tell the press if the driver was speeding or how he failed to avoid striking the victim.

The victim’s identity had not been released as of this afternoon, pending family notification, NYPD told Streetsblog. The driver was identified only as a 57-year-old man. It is customary for NYPD to conceal the identities of drivers who kill people unless charges are filed.

Drivers killed three pedestrians on Main Street between 2009 and 2013, according to the DOT Queens pedestrian safety action plan. There were 32 crashes on Main during that period resulting in pedestrian death or severe injury.

Main Street is one of 47 streets in Queens slated for safety improvements under the city’s Vision Zero initiative. DOT has prioritized safety fixes at four Main Street intersections, but the site of last week’s fatal crash is not one of them. Transportation Alternatives has urged Mayor de Blasio to fully fund Vision Zero street redesign projects, which he has declined to do in the last two city budgets.

This fatal crash occurred in the 109th Precinct, where local officers ticketed 773 drivers for speeding in 2016, and in the City Council district represented by Peter Koo.