A 74-year-old man is in critical condition after an SUV struck him at the intersection of Chatham Square and Mott Street in Chinatown, according to police. The crash has turned fresh attention toward a sprawling, chaotic intersection that neighborhood residents and traffic safety advocates have long flagged as hazardous to pedestrians.
Police said the man was hit by the SUV at the busy junction, according to CBS News, which first reported the crash. Details beyond the man's age, the location, and the severity of his injuries have not been released.
A Notoriously Tangled Intersection
Chatham Square, where Mott Street converges with several other roadways near the edge of Chinatown, has a long history as a trouble spot for people on foot. Critics describe the current layout as too complex, calling it a danger to drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians alike, the station's report notes. Data cited by Streetsblog New York City found that dozens of pedestrians and cyclists were injured in crashes there between 1995 and 2005.
Efforts to fix the intersection date back nearly two decades. In 2008, the city floated a conceptual plan to simplify the crossing and add sidewalk space, per the same Streetsblog account. That plan stalled when the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation redirected the $30 million set aside for the project toward other uses, according to Streetsblog's reporting.
A Redesign Still Years Away
More recently, officials have revived the push for change. A $56 million revitalization initiative for what's now called Chatham/Kimlau Square was announced in February 2024, per the earlier CBS New York account. Design concepts released by the NYC Department of Transportation call for transforming the sprawling junction into a standard four-way intersection meant to better serve the high volume of pedestrians who pass through daily and to shorten the distances people must cross.
But any relief from that redesign remains years off. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with an estimated completion date in 2029, according to the CBS New York report. Nothing in the available record indicates whether the planning process or any interim changes have affected crash patterns at the square in the meantime.
Older Pedestrians Face Outsized Risk
The crash also lands amid broader citywide concern about older pedestrians' vulnerability on city streets. A NYC DOT plan has noted that seniors, while representing less than 15% of New York City's population, account for over 45% of pedestrian fatalities citywide, though the agency's materials do not specify the study period behind that figure.
The department has also pointed to a disproportionate toll on Asian New Yorkers among older pedestrians killed in traffic, suggesting it's likely tied to older Asian populations being concentrated in denser parts of the city with higher rates of walking and lower car ownership, according to the DOT's Vision Zero materials. Neither the man's identity nor further details about the driver or the circumstances of Monday's crash have been made public.
