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Monday, June 24, 2013

ANOTHER PEDESTRIAN FATALITY AT A NOT-YET-IMPROVED OCEAN PARKWAY INTERSECTION

An 18-wheel tractor-trailer snagged a Buckingham Road resident as she was crossing the notoriously dangerous intersection of Ocean Parkway and Church Avenue at about 9:40 this morning.

Seventy-three-year-old Ngozi Agbim, pounded on the truck to alert the driver to her situation, but he didn't hear her. She fell. The truck's wheels ran over her and killed her. Rest in peace, Ms. Agbim.

The New York Post reports that she "was crossing outside of the crosswalk."

According to the Daily News, Ms. Agbim had been walking east on Church (in the direction of Coney Island Avenue) and the driver had been traveling west on Church (in the direction of McDonald Avenue).

But a  neighbor wrote on Kensington's Facebook page that witnesses told her Ms. Agbim and the truck were both headed west on Church--toward McDonald, with CIA behind them. Ms. Agbim was walking on the north side of Church when she entered the crosswalk. The driver turned right onto the north-bound side of Ocean Parkway to go toward Park Circle, and the truck snagged her.

We, the residents of City Council District 39, Brad Lander's district, voted during the first year of Brad's participatory budgeting project to allocate $200,000 to remedy the pedestrian hazards at this intersection. That was in March 2012. To date, no improvements have been made. This update is the most recent on Brad's website: "March 2013: NYCDOT has submitted study to NYSDOT and is awaiting a response."

People who live, work, walk, bicycle, or drive on Ocean Parkway and the Prospect Expressway should contact Brad (phone: (718) 499-1090) and tell him about the latest fatality, that this project is taking too long, and that we need a remedy fast.