Cops say a driver fatally struck a man who may have been sleeping in a cardboard box under the Gowanus Expressway in Sunset Park last weekend.
Officers with Brooklyn’s 72nd Precinct responded to an emergency call about a pedestrian hit by a car on Friday, July 9 at around 10:21 pm on Third Avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets, according to authorities. When they arrived, cops say they found the victim — a 46-year-old man — lying in the roadway with head and neck trauma.
An NYPD investigation has since determined that a 35-year-old man operating a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee was turning to park under the Gowanus Expressway when he struck a cardboard box in the roadway area that police said had the man inside.
The victim was rushed to just blocks away to nearby NYU Langone-Brooklyn, where he was later pronounced dead.
There have been no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing, according to the NYPD.
The man’s death comes as the borough has seen a spike in traffic fatalities compared to the same time last year — an increase of 64 percent from 25 fatalities as of July 11 last year to 41 as of the same date in 2021, police stats show. Citywide, there have been 57 pedestrian fatalities so far this year.
