De Blasio join mourners at vigil and march for beloved NYC teacher killed in hit and run accident

Mathew Jensen, a beloved Greenpoint teacher, was crossing McGuiness Boulevard when he was struck by a Rolls Royce whose driver took off, letting the man die in the street.

The car accident occurred 10 days ago and the police still have not made an arrest despite de Blasio saying that they would find the driver.

Yesterday a vigil and a march were organized to pay tribute to the teacher and to call for making McGuiness Boulevard safer. The mourners were mostly parents and students as well as some family members, street activists and local politicians.

Despite 7 years of Vision Zero, McGuiness Boulevard remains one of the most dangerous crosswalks in New York City

Matthew Jensen was killed at the corner of McGuiness Boulevard and Bayard Street. Before him, 15 people died in traffic accidents at this intersection. De Blasio who attended the vigil said McGuiness Boulevard would be fixed but remained very evasive as to when and if this still would happen before he leaves office at the end of the year.

Despite Vision Zero that started in 2014, McGuiness Boulevard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, was never redesigned to be safer. At the vigil, de Blasio said that fixes  were long overdue and that budget would be immediately allocated to redesign the dangerous boulevard.

Too often someone has to die until the administration decides to improve areas that are known to be dangerous.  Already in 2010, Transportation Alternatives published a study that found that drivers were violating traffic laws every 17 seconds and failed to yield to pedestrians every two minutes on McGuiness Boulevard. The study was done after two pedestrians and a cyclist were killed between 2009 and 2010. Speed has always been an issue and according to traffic statistics, there is one crash recorded every other day on the 1.1 mile boulevard.  (Read more in Streetblog)

Picture of the deadly intersection: courtesy of Google Map