UPDATE: Pedestrian Killed in Midtown

A pedestrian was struck and killed by a truck driver at a busy Midtown intersection on Thursday morning — and the NYPD said in its preliminary report that the victim had “walked in front” of a moving tractor trailer.

According to the NYPD, the man, who remains unidentified but is “in his 40s,” was struck at the intersection of Eighth Avenue and 44th Street by a northbound truck at around 11:30 a.m. A police spokeswoman told Streetsblog that, based on preliminary information, the pedestrian “walked in front” of the truck. The victim suffered severe head and body trauma and died at the scene.

That language was later changed.

“An unidentified male pedestrian approximately in his 50s, was crossing Eighth Avenue from the east side of the street to the west side of the street [and] was struck by the box struck,” the Department of Transportation later said in its official preliminary statement after the crash.

The driver remained at the crash site and was not immediately charged.

No further information was immediately available, including whether the truck or the pedestrian had the light, the agency spokeswoman said.

The pedestrian would be at least the 78th killed this year. That’s lower than the number killed last year during the same period, but still high.

The area around the Port Authority Bus Terminal is exceptionally dangerous for pedestrians. Since January 2020, there have been 107 reported crashes on just the three blocks of Eighth Avenue between 42nd and 45th streets, injuring 13 cyclists, 18 pedestrians and 19 motorists, according to city data.

Just this year in the confines of the Midtown South precinct, there have been 630 reported crashes —  more than two per day — injuring 67 cyclists, 90 pedestrians and 89 motorists, according to the same database. The number of reported crashes is dramatically fewer than the number that actually occur because the NYPD stopped responding to and logging most non-injury crashes in 2020, as Streetsblog reported.

The city Department of Transportation recently undertook a pedestrian safety initiative along Eighth Avenue that widened sidewalks.