Pedestrian Struck by Truck Driver in Queens Dies of His Injuries: Cops

The deadliest portion of the city just got deadlier.

Police on Wednesday said that a 41-year-old man who had been struck last month by a truck driver in the Laurelton section of Queens has died of his injuries.

Cops said the 61-year-old truck driver had slammed into the pedestrian on May 19 at around 2 a.m. at Hook Creek Boulevard near 135th Road hard by the Nassau County border. The crash caused severe body trauma to the victim, whose name has not been released. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he died on Sunday, June 11.

The driver remained on the scene and was not charged.

A police spokesman declined to discuss details of the case, including whether the driver had been speeding along the exceptionally wide roadway that lacks stops signs or a traffic light at that intersection (see photo above).

A speed camera on Hook Creek Boulevard issued more than 600 tickets in fiscal year 2021, Streetsblog previously reported, or roughly two per day.

The crash occurred within the confines of City Council District 31, which is represented by Council Transportation Chair Selvena Brooks-Powers. The activist group Transportation Alternatives has consistently pointed out how dangerous her district is. In the first quarter of 2023, the district had six road deaths, the most of any Council district in those three months. The southeast Queens district has fewer than 2 percent of city residents, but had more 10 percent of all fatalities that quarter.

District 31 also had nearly two times the fatality rate per 10,000 residents than even the second-most-dangerous council district.

Council District 31 led all districts with 12 road fatalities in 2021. And last year, the district also lead all others with 10 road deaths, Transportation Alternatives reported.