An 83-year-old woman was fatally struck by a dump truck driver in Boerum Hill on Wednesday afternoon, according to the NYPD.
The crash occurred around 11:30 a.m., police said, as Gowanus Houses resident Carolyn Cox was crossing Bond Street midblock toward Butler Street. While she was crossing, the driver of a 2018 Kenworth dump truck turned right from Butler Street onto Bond Street and struck her with the passenger side of the vehicle.
Cops said the driver, who has not been identified, continued to drive but came to a stop at the corner of Third Avenue and Bergen Street — about a half mile from the scene of the crash.
Cox was found unconscious and unresponsive in the road, and was taken to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. An investigation is ongoing, and no arrests have been made.
The intersection of Bond and Butler streets is a “T,” intersection — Butler Street meets Bond Street, but does not continue on the other side. Though there is an intersection north-south across Butler, there is not an east-west crosswalk on Bond, where Cox was crossing. There is a stop sign for eastbound traffic turning from Butler onto Bond, as the dump truck driver was.
Three crashes have been reported at the intersection between over the last five years, according to NYC Crash Mapper, resulting in three pedestrian injuries.
“This tragedy underscores the pressing need to design all of our streets with safety in mind, including features like physical curb extensions, clearly marked and raised crosswalks, and universal daylighting, and to implement the lower speed limits facilitated by the recent passage of Sammy’s Law as soon as possible,” Brooklyn Community Board 6 said in a statement. “Our thoughts tonight are with the victim and her family and friends.
Six people have been hit and killed by dump trucks in New York City this year, according to streets-safety group Transportation Alternatives. In March, a 58-year-old woman was struck and killed by a dump truck in Flatbush — the same truck that killed a Queens crossing guard in 2023, according to the New York Daily News.
Two pedestrians — ages 75 and 77 — were killed by dump trucks in southern Brooklyn in the span of just four months last year.
“We need painted crosswalks at every intersection – including and especially all three sides of these T-intersections,” said TransAlt representative Elizabeth Adams in a statement. “DOT proposed a rule to prohibit vehicles from blocking pedestrian crossing points at unmarked crosswalks back in September, but hasn’t moved forwards.”
Hours after Cox was killed, a delivery truck driver struck and killed an eight-year-old girl and a 16-year-old girl in an unrelated incident in Queens. The 16-year-old was killed, while the eight-year-old was hospitalized with serious injuries.
“During the deadliest year for traffic crashes in over a decade, two more families are mourning wholly preventable losses and we are furious as we demand more from our city’s leaders,” Adams said. “We need real action and real leadership to protect our youngest and oldest pedestrians.”
