A 4-year-old boy was killed late Thursday morning after he ran into a busy Brownsville intersection and was struck by a driver who kept going, police said. The fatal crash happened just after 11 a.m. near Rockaway Parkway and Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn. The child was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
According to ABC7, the boy broke away from his mother and darted into traffic before he was hit, and the driver did not stay at the scene. Witnesses and police described the vehicle as a white Ford SUV that was last seen heading north on Rockaway Parkway. As of Thursday evening, authorities had released few other details.
Dangerous Corridor Long Flagged For Safety Fixes
Neighbors did not need a traffic study to know this intersection is trouble, but city planners have had it circled for years. Rockaway Parkway and Linden Boulevard have been repeatedly identified as high-risk streets for people on foot, with wide, fast-moving lanes and heavy turning traffic that make crossings especially dicey.
The NYC Department of Transportation's Brooklyn Pedestrian Safety Action Plan labeled Rockaway Parkway a Vision Zero “Priority Corridor” and included Linden Boulevard in broader corridor improvement plans intended to cut deaths and serious injuries, according to NYC DOT. That track record helps explain why crashes at this intersection tend to grab immediate attention from residents and traffic-safety advocates.
Hit-And-Run Investigations And City Data
Recent NYPD traffic summaries show multiple leaving-the-scene collisions along Linden Boulevard, a reminder of how hard it can be to investigate serious crashes when drivers take off, according to NYPD. In this case, investigators had not announced any arrests or released a suspect description as of Thursday, and ABC7 reported that authorities were keeping specifics close as the probe moved forward.
