A 21 year old man was killed in a car crash in New York City after a 20 year old unlicensed driver blew a stop sign and struck him. 20 year old Satesh Permaul was driving his car on 107th Avenue in Ozone Park, Queens, when 21 year old Christopher Garcia sped through a stop sign at 109th Street and crashed into his car. The young men were both from the neighborhood and knew each other from school. Garcia didn’t have a drivers license. Shortly before the accident occurred he called his girlfriend to tell her he was looking for a parking space according to the Daily News. The girlfriend also told the News that Garcia was teaching her how to drive and explained to her how to wait 3 seconds at a stop sign before slowly crossing. Surveillance video show Garcia completely ignoring the stop sign and crashing into Permaul’s car at full speed. Permaul was transported to the hospital but he didn’t survive his injuries. The police took Garcia into custody and charged him with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. (Read more in the NY Daily News )
Speeding is spiking in the City
With less traffic in the streets because of the pandemic, speeding has been spiking all over the city. In New York City, on March 27, 24,765 speed camera tickets were issued compared to 12,672 tickets daily a month earlier. On Twitter NYC Councilman Justin Brannan said “Yep. Now that the streets are empty, the Fast & Furious wannabes really think they’re living in a video game. The sounds of cars and motorcycles racing on the Belt Parkway in #BayRidge have become a scary lullaby.”
Even though the streets are emptier, speeding puts people at risk of dangerous accidents at a time during which EMS and hospital workers are already overwhelmed. According to the most recent NYPD statistics, there were a total of 683 car crashes reported during the week of April 6 to April 12. Among these crashes 193 caused 258 people to be be injured. Among them were 214 vehicle occupants, 21 pedestrians and 23 cyclists.
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