Two pedestrians were killed by hit-and-run drivers in separate incidents in Manhattan and Queens early Monday morning, police said.
The first victim was struck just before 3 a.m. at the corner of Lenox Avenue and 125th Street in Harlem. The man was discovered unconscious with severe head trauma and pronounced dead at the scene by EMS.
According to a preliminary investigation, the victim was struck by the driver of an unknown vehicle, who then fled north on Lenox Avenue. There were no arrests as of Monday morning.
A few hours later, a second man was fatally struck by a driver along the Long Island Expressway. An NYPD spokesperson said the man was walking within the westbound travel lanes, near the Woodhaven Boulevard exit, when he was hit. The driver immediately fled the scene, police said.
The man was found lying in the roadway with severe body trauma and pronounced dead at the scene. There were no arrests and the investigation remained ongoing.
The identities of both men are being withheld pending family notification.
At the start of the pandemic, as stay-at-home orders kept many drivers off the road, New York City went nearly two months without a pedestrian fatality, the longest since the city began keeping records.
Pedestrian injuries and fatalities have increased since lockdown restrictions were eased, averaging more than 8 deaths per month in the last three months.
Total vehicle collisions have also more than doubled, from a low of 4,000 in April to nearly 10,000 in the month of August.
