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Minivan driver hits and kills 87-year-old pedestrian in Canarsie, steps from victim’s home

canarsie crash
First responders on the scene of a fatal Jan. 10 crash in Canarsie.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

A minivan driver hit and killed an 87-year-old pedestrian in Canarsie on Friday, police said, in what appeared to be Brooklyn’s first traffic fatality of 2025. 

The victim, Esther Sealy, was trying to cross East 88th Street at Avenue L at about 6:45 p.m. on Jan. 10, per the NYPD. As she walked, a 39-year-old man – who has not been named — struck her in the street as he drove westbound on Avenue L, toward East 86th Street.

After he struck Sealy, the driver hit an empty parked Toyota Camry, then stopped his car and remained on the scene until police arrived. Paramedics rushed Sealy, who was left with “severe trauma to the body,” to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. She lived just a block from the scene of the crash, according to the NYPD. 

aftermath of car crash in canarsie
The van, pictured, hit a parked vehicle before coming to a stop. The victim’s belongings were left scattered in the street. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

The NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad is investigating the incident, and no arrests had been made as of Jan. 13. 

There are not stop signs on Avenue L at East 88th Street, maps show, and crosswalks are only present east-west along the avenue — not north-south along the streets it crosses over. 

Sealy’s death was the first traffic-related fatality in Brooklyn in 2025, per police statistics. At least 31 pedestrians were killed in Brooklyn in 2024, statistics show, though safe-streets organization Transportation Alternatives had tracked at least 36 pedestrian fatalities as of Dec. 2, 2024. Many of those killed were seniors and older adults. Last April, an 87-year-old woman was killed by a car that was left in gear in Gravesend. In June, a 63-year-old wheelchair user was killed by a driver in Brownsville, weeks before an 83-year-old woman was fatally struck by a dump truck driver in Boerum Hill. In September, a 74-year-old man was killed in a Bay Ridge hit-and-run, and the driver of a Jeep hit and killed a 73-year-old woman in Midwood last month. 

canarsie crash intersection
East 88th Street and Avenue L, where Sealy was hit. Photo courtesy of Google Maps

 Rose Uscianowski, Transportation Alternatives’ South Brooklyn and Staten Island Organizer, said she was “heartbroken” over the crash.

“Almost half of the senior pedestrians killed in 2024 were killed in Brooklyn,” she said. “In Canarsie alone, a driver killed Louis Garcia last January and a different driver killed Claude Blair just a few months ago in November. There’s so much more New York City can do to protect its most vulnerable pedestrians, and it can start by daylighting every intersection.”

Daylighting refers to preventing cars from parking too close to intersections, improving visibility for pedestrians and drivers. It is often accompanied by physical barriers meant to slow turning drivers. Last fall, Mayor Eric Adams vowed to daylight 1,000 intersections across the city each year, starting in 2024. 

In 2024, 18 senior pedestrians were killed at intersections, Uscianowski said, “but not a single one was killed at an intersection with hard, physical infrastructure daylighting every corner.”