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Dec 29, 2017 By Tara Law (Updated)
An 81-year-old man was fatally struck by a car just blocks from his 37th Avenue home last week, the police announced Friday.
Soliman Leano was hit by a 2003 Chevrolet Suburban while crossing 31st Street from east to west in the south marked crosswalk at around 9:00 pm, Thursday, Dec 21. The vehicle was traveling southbound on 31 Street across 37 Avenue–with the traffic signal–when Leano was struck, according to police.
The car hit Leano by the crosswalk and came to a stop after crashing into a support column for the elevated train tracks.
Police responded at 9:03 p.m. and found Leano lying on the street with trauma to his head and torso.
EMS brought Leano to Cornell Hospital. He was pronounced dead on Dec. 22.
The driver, a 43-year-old man, remained at the scene.
No arrests have been made. The investigation is ongoing.
This article has been updated
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7 Comments
Need better lighting under the elevated tracks.
so the pedestrian is at fault. End of story. no tickets warning to the driver. It wasn’t his fault He needs to sue the estate for damages to his SUV or else his insurance will jet jackedup
Very sad. 31st street has a lot of blind spots because of the supports for the tracks. There needs to be more work on how to make this crossing safer. Unfortunately, people just walk out into the road without thinking or realizing that drivers cannot always see them. Add to that the impatience with which drivers often have on this street (and others); it’s just dangerous. Kids in strollers always make me nervous when their are being crossed on this street (as well as on 30th Ave and 30th Street – that’s a bad one for different reasons). At the least there should be some curbs built out here, and other measures to slow drivers down.
Very sad situation but patience needs to be had for both drivers and pedestrians. From the article Mr. Leano did not have the green light.
Condolences to family and friends.
Poor visibility on that street due to the track columns. At this time of year from 3PM until almost sunset, drivers are blinded by the sun too – nothing you can do about it but not a good situation when kids are getting out of school.
Also should be better speed enforcement on all of the wide north-south streets (21,31,33) that some people use as speedways.
So sad, New York City has to do better. I lived in Astoria Queens all my life and moved to Massachusetts last year. I realized how much New York City sucks in caring for the pedestrians. In Massachusetts they have a better set up for the street lights. If the cars have the green light the pedestrians have the right light. when the pedestrians have the green light the cars have the red light so there’s no turning right and hitting someone that’s trying to cross the street. Despite the fact that in New York City people cross in the middle of the street. I believe there would be less incidents like this if they changed the street light format. I honestly don’t miss New York City. The only thing I do miss is some of food and everything is open late lol.
Good for you! NYC is not the end all be all. Lots of up and coming desirable cities across the country to choose from.
Yeah, it is …… If you don’t like it you can leave