Woman injured in B'way car accident

Posted

Updated: "Light was intended to prevent fatal crash"

A 76-year-old woman was badly injured when she was struck by a car Saturday on Broadway near W. 246th Street, in an area where the city has been working to install a traffic light to improve pedestrian safety, the commanding officer of the 50th police precinct, Deputy Inspector Terence O'Toole said.

The accident early on Saturday evening was a "low-speed collision," Capt. O'Toole said. Investigators were yet to determine who was at fault, although initial data indicated that both the driver, a middle-aged woman, and the victim may share some of the responsibility, he said Sunday.

The victim was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital and appeared in "pretty bad shape," Capt. O'Toole told The Press.

She had been trying to cross a stretch of Broadway that often sees heavy traffic, but has no crosswalks.

The area was blocked off for several hours following the Saturday accident, while police were conducting what Capt. O'Toole described as a "very big investigation."

Over the past few months, city workers have been installing traffic lights along the stretch of Broadway between W. 242nd and W. 251st streets, after local politicians called for making the area safer for pedestrian.

“There’s no place for pedestrians to cross,” Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said this summer.

Two news sets of traffic lights have been placed above Broadway in the area, but for the past weeks, those have remained wrapped in black plastic - a material similar to that of garbage bags - and are yet to become operational.

The accident Saturday was the latest in a string of collisions and traffic injuries the section of Broadway has seen in recent years.