A 33-year-old man is in critical condition with severe head injuries after a driver struck him on Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights and then kept driving. The collision happened near Atlantic Avenue around 7:35 p.m. Tuesday, and the driver has not been found.
Police say the driver was behind the wheel of a white 2026 Hyundai Elantra heading south on Nostrand Avenue when it struck the man near Atlantic Avenue, according to News 12 Brooklyn. Rather than stopping, the driver continued south on Nostrand Avenue, leaving the injured man behind. He was rushed to Kings County Hospital with severe head injuries.
Citizen video from the scene shows investigators examining the area, with what appears to be a bike lying in the street. Police said the man was riding a two-wheel vehicle but have not specified what kind, or released a description of the driver. News 12 reported no arrests as of October 21, and investigators were still searching for the Hyundai Elantra.
A Dangerous Stretch With a Grim History
The intersection of Nostrand and Atlantic avenues is no stranger to deadly hit-and-run violence. In October 2021, 63-year-old pedestrian Dyral Brown was fatally struck at that same intersection by a speeding driver in a silver SUV who also fled, according to footage reviewed by NYPD investigators at the time. The NYC Department of Transportation designated Nostrand Avenue a Vision Zero Priority Corridor years earlier, after data showed its rate of severe pedestrian injuries and deaths per mile ranked among the highest in Brooklyn alongside Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, per Streetsblog New York City.
Atlantic Avenue itself logged more than 450 hit-and-run incidents in 2025 alone, making the corridor near Tuesday's crash one of the city's highest-risk traffic locations, according to CBAS Lawyers.
Recent Crashes Along the Same Corridor
Tuesday's hit-and-run adds to a string of violent incidents along Nostrand Avenue in recent months. In August, a two-car collision on Nostrand Avenue in nearby Bed-Stuy sent an SUV jumping the curb and striking a mother and her 4-year-old child on the sidewalk, according to Streetsblog New York City.
News 12 Brooklyn reported a fatal incident involving an MTA B44 bus on Saturday, September 5. The bus had stopped, and how the man was struck was unclear.
Low Odds of an Arrest, Legal Experts Say
If investigators identify and catch the driver, New York Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 600(2)(a) makes leaving the scene a Class E felony when the injured person suffered serious injury and the driver failed to stop and comply with the required steps, carrying up to four years in state prison and fines between $1,000 and $5,000, according to Saland Law. But the odds of that happening are slim: AEE Law says the arrest rate for hit-and-runs in New York City fell from 8.6% in 2018 to 3.6% in 2023, and that the remaining drivers faced zero criminal consequences, per AEE Law.
Tuesday's crash also lands amid a citywide rise in micro-mobility injuries. New York City recorded 738 injuries and 13 fatalities among e-bike and micro-mobility riders in the first six months of 2026, up from 601 injuries and 10 deaths over the same stretch in 2025, according to FOX 13 Seattle. The 33-year-old's condition and the hunt for the white Hyundai Elantra remain under investigation, with News 12 reporting no arrests as of October 21.
