January 12, 2020 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
LOCAL
CL ASSIFIEDS
PAGE 11
LEFRAK CITY MOURNS
Community calls for safer streets after sanitation truck fatally strikes 10-year-old boy
BY MAX PARROTT
Councilman Francisco
Moya and the LeFrak City Tenants
Association held a vigil
on Tuesday evening for the 10-
year-old boy who was fatally
struck by a New York City Department
of Sanitation truck
outside the LeFrak City apartments
in Corona earlier that
morning.
Prayer candle in hand at the
intersection where the tragic
crash occurred, Moya linked it
to an “epidemic” of pedestrian
fatalities both in Corona and
across the city.
He urged the Department of
Transportation to take action
along the stretch of 57th Avenue
with street calming measures
and a traffic study.
“I’ve had meetings and phone
calls today with the Department
of Transportation looking for
different ways to create street
calming and also implement different
kinds of measures that
would protect the residents who
will be crossing the street here,”
said Moya.
Moya said that he requested
more crossing
guards, better street lighting
and changes to the traffic
signaling.
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Without the final results of
the then-ongoing NYPD investigation
of the accident, Moya
declined to say whether these
measures could have saved the
10 year-old boy and his mother,
who was in critical condition at
Elmhurst Hospital at the time of
the vigil.
Moya added that he has
asked the DOT to conduct
a study on how pedestrians
can be safer on the thoroughfare
on 57th Avenue and on
Junction Boulevard.
Michelle Dunston, LeFrak
City Tenants Association president,
said that the organization
had been working with DOT to
address pedestrian safety prior
to the accident, and that the
agency would be coming to their
next meeting.
Dunston, also the crossing
guard supervisor for the 110th
Precinct, said that there were no
crossing guards stationed at the
location of the accident.
Moya said that he had put
in a request months ago to get
more crossing guards along the
stretch.
Later that night, an NYPD
spokesperson told QNS that the
Highway District’s Collision Investigation
Squad determined
the accident occurred after the
sanitation truck made an eastbound
right turn onto 57th Avenue,
striking the two pedestrians
who emerged from the passenger
side of the vehicle and subsequently
running them over with
the passenger-side front tire.
Moya said that the vigil was
organized to show support during
the family’s time in need.
No members of the family were
present.
A DOT spokesperson said that
the agency will visit the crash
site along with NYPD and will
continue to evaluate the location
for potential further safety improvements,
as is standard practice
after any traffic fatality.
Reach reporter Max Parrott by
e-mail at mparrott@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at (718) 260-
2507.
UPDATED EVERY DAY AT QNS.COM
From left: Councilman Francisco Moya and LeFrak City Tenant Association President Michelle Dunston
Photo: Dean Moses/QNS
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