Barely one week after a 7-year-old girl was killed by a driver while riding her scooter, a 4-year-old boy is in critical condition after being struck by a minivan driver Sunday evening in Brooklyn, according to the NYPD.
A 58-year-old minivan driver was heading northbound on Gerritsen Avenue when he hit the toddler, who was on a scooter at Gerritsen and Seba avenues about 6:10 p.m. Sunday, an NYPD spokesperson said.
Police found the boy unconscious and unresponsive at the intersection. Emergency medical personnel took the boy to Maimonides Medical Center in critical condition.
The driver stayed at the scene. He had not been arrested as of Monday morning.
Video from the Citizen App shows police tape blocking off an area nearby a white minivan.
The roadway where the child was hit is across the street from a playground, skate park, and little league field in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn.
A week ago, 7-year-old Sama Ali was fatally struck by an armored truck driver in Bath Beach, Brooklyn. The driver in that crash was not arrested. Ali was the ninth child to die in traffic crashes on NYC streets in 2020.
Traffic deaths have risen as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted and New Yorkers go back to work and stay at home less than they were during NY's PAUSE. Between June and August, an average of more than eight pedestrians a month have died, compared to five total between March and May, Vision Zero data shows.
On Saturday morning about 7:40 a.m., the NY Post reports a 31-year-old nurse biking home after her shift at NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn was struck and killed by a motorcyclist in Sunset Park—the 19th cyclist to die on NYC's streets in 2020. The 29-year-old motorcyclist suffered critical injuries, but survived, according to police.
The cyclist, Clara Kang of Long Island City, was among a rising number of essential workers who began cycling amid the pandemic and overnight subway closures. Her friend, Elaine Lee, wrote in a GoFundMe that Kang "had the positive spirit that drew people in" and "the drive to achieve the most out of life."
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio has launched an open streets program and committed to nine miles of protected bike lanes. Speed limits had been lowered along Third and Hamilton Avenues in Brooklyn from 30 to 25 miles per hour earlier this year.
But transportation advocates say it doesn't go far enough to prevent traffic deaths.
"Early on in the pandemic, advocates called on the mayor to quickly roll out protected bike lanes so that more essential workers would be able to commute in a safe manner," Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris said. "Instead of rising to the occasion and launching a network of protected lanes, the mayor did the bare minimum, plugging only a handful of gaps in the city's bike network."
