82-Year-Old Hit By Driver In Bayside Dies: Cops

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — On Friday, police said that an elderly woman, who was hit by a driver while crossing the street in Bayside last weekend, died on Tuesday.

Around 3:20 p.m. on Sunday, May 23, the car's driver, a 43-year-old woman who was behind the wheel of an SUV, made a left turn from Corporal Kennedy Street onto 43 Avenue, and hit Lopamudra Desai, 82, who was crossing the street, according to the NYPD.

Desai, who lived right near the intersection, was knocked to the ground and hit her head on the pavement. Police said she was taken to NYC Health & Hospitals in Queens, where she died a couple of days later on Tuesday, May 25.

The driver, who police said came to a stop at the four-way intersection, failed to comply with state law by not yielding to Desai who was crossing the street at a marked crosswalk.

According to police, the driver remained at the scene after the accident, and as of Friday no arrests have been made and the investigation remains ongoing.

Dozens of locals, who commented on a neighborhood Facebook post about the fatal accident, said that drivers in Bayside often run stop signs in the neighborhood, and called on the city to add stop lights and cameras.

"This is an intersection with a four way stop," wrote one person. "Aggressive drivers who routinely use an intersection like this will often not come to a full stop or barely slow down at all. This is why NYC DOT no longer installs four way stop signs at intersections," they wrote, calling on the city to add a traffic signal at the intersection.

Another local wrote that they often see "people running stop signs [and] speeding" in Bayside.

Austin Shafran, who is running for City Council in the district, wrote that this incident "could have been avoided with more thoughtful street and traffic flow planning," and called on the city to consider replacing stop signs like this one with traffic lights.

"I’ve seen so many cars roll right through the stop signs on Corporal Kennedy, either racing to Northern Blvd or making a left to get to Bell Blvd while avoiding the traffic and lights," he wrote, echoing others on the thread. "This wasn’t the first incident and it won’t be the last of something isn’t done to address the problem."

Other neighbors shared experiences they'd had with aggressive drivers in the neighborhood.

"My son was just telling me today how he almost got hit crossing, [he] actually felt the swoosh," wrote one person.

Another said that last weekend, the day before this fatal accident, "the car in front of me was honking at an older gentleman crossing Bell with a cane and doing his best to walk quickly," which alarmed them about the state of drivers in the neighborhood. "I just could envision if that were my dad," they wrote.

The crash in Bayside comes shortly after 2021 was deemed the second-deadliest traffic year under Mayor Bill de Blasio — especially for pedestrians who comprise 43 of the 70 traffic deaths from January 1 to April 30 of this year, according to city data highlighted by Transportation Alternatives