One person is dead and two others injured after a driver struck them on a Coney Island sidewalk on Wednesday afternoon.
Police said an 86-year-old man driving a Chrysler minivan reversed over the curb outside a shopping center near 535 Neptune Ave. and hit three pedestrians who were standing on the sidewalk: two 75-year-old women and a 43-year-old woman.
One of the women was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where she was pronounced dead. The other two victims were taken to Maimonides Medical Center in stable condition, per the NYPD.
A law enforcement source said the driver may have been having a stroke during the crash. Police confirmed that he was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was also stable as of Wednesday afternoon.
Police withheld the name of the woman who died, pending family notification, and did not release the name of the driver. No arrests have been made, and an investigation is ongoing.
One victim’s rolling grocery cart remained wedged in a tree pit in front of the shopping center as police canvassed the scene after the crash, and the force of the collision appeared to have shattered a glass fence panel at the edge of the sidewalk.
The incident was southern Brooklyn’s second serious crash in just three days. On Monday night, an 11-year-old boy was critically injured in a hit-and-run in nearby Gravesend.
In Brooklyn, vehicle collisions are down nearly 10% compared to last year, per the latest NYPD statistics, and crashes involving pedestrians are down roughly 6%. Though the number of crashes has declined, fatalities have spiked — total crash-related fatalities are up 7% and pedestrian deaths are up nearly 30%, and at least 35 pedestrians had died in vehicle collisions as of Oct 12.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with additional information.
