Hit-and-run in Brooklyn spurs community to action

While police are searching for the driver in a Tuesday night hit-and-run crash, local community members are calling for increased road safety in the area. Authorities say a 25-year-old man was mowed

News 12 Staff

Oct 8, 2008, 6:20 PM

Updated 5,850 days ago

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While police are searching for the driver in a Tuesday night hit-and-run crash, local community members are calling for increased road safety in the area.
Authorities say a 25-year-old man was mowed down by a dark sedan at the intersection of Ocean Parkway and 18th Avenue. Many residents who live nearby say the intersection is very dangerous.
?When the lights turn, people just start running through lights,? says Anna Santiago.
The Tuesday hit-and-run is the latest in a string of accidents that have taken place at the intersection. On Saturday, a woman was struck by a vehicle on the same road.
?The Jewish New Year just started, and already this is the second accident this year,? says Elky Levin, who witnessed both accidents.
Levin and others in the Kensington neighborhood say something must be done to make the intersection safer. She says a good starting point would be to encourage drivers to show pedestrians greater respect, and vice versa.
?If drivers let the pedestrian cross, and pedestrians let the drivers go, it will make the world a better place,? she says.
Local residents have already formed a task force in an attempt to make the area roads safer to cross. However, they say their message does not seem to be resonating with drivers or pedestrians.
The man who was struck Tuesday night is listed in critical condition at Lutheran Hospital. So far, no arrests have been made in the incident.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.