2 pedestrians killed and another one seriously injured in truck accidents in New York City last week

A 10 year old boy and a 68 year old woman died in two separate truck accidents in New York City last week. Both accidents occurred on the same day.

10 year old boy killed by NYC Sanitation truck

The first accident occurred in Queens last Tuesday around 7:00 am.  10 year old Shreejan Panthee was on his way to school with his mother Mina. Both of them were crossing the 57th Avenue crosswalk near 97th Street in Corona, Queens, when a NYC Sanitation truck made a right turn onto 57th Street from a nearby driveway and struck them. The boy was run over by the rear wheels and the mother was knocked down on the ground.  Both the mother and the child were rushed to the hospital. Shreejan died a few hours later. Her mother Mina was critically injured but survived. A man who witnessed the accident told the media that he screamed at the truck driver: “Slow down, you are going to hit them!”. Mina, her husband Purushottam Panthee and their son Shreejan came from Nepal in 2010. The husband works as a chemist in Long Island and the mother works in a beauty salon in the Bronx. Shreejan was a smart boy who won spelling bee prizes and enjoyed swimming. The Queens Nepali Community was in shock. A vigil was organized at night at the location of the accident. The truck driver wasn’t immediately charged by the police however he was placed on “modified duty,” and stripped of driving responsibilities by the NYC Sanitation Department.

68 year old woman killed by cement truck

The second deadly truck accident occurred in Brooklyn a few hours later. A 68 year old woman was fatally struck by a cement truck as she was crossing the street mid-block. A video of the accident shows the pedestrian walking slowly with a cane, crossing mid-block through the traffic waiting at a red light on New Utrecht Avenue in Borough Park.  As she walked in front of the cement truck, the light turned green for the traffic; the cement truck moved forward and rolled over her. She was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The driver stayed at the scene of the accident and wasn’t charged. (see video of the accident in the Daily News)

Read more in the New York Times