Woman Killed By SUV On Downtown Brooklyn 'Shared Street': Cops

DOWNTOWN, BROOKLYN — A woman was hit and killed Wednesday on a Downtown Brooklyn roadway that was transformed into a "shared street" to improve access for pedestrians just two months ago, police said.

The 40-year-old woman was crossing the Pearl and Willoughby street intersection just before 9:30 a.m. when she was hit by an SUV driving up Pearl Street, police said. Police found her unconscious with trauma to her body and took her to Brooklyn Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The 81-year-old driver of the 2004 Ford, which photos show was a dark grey SUV, was also taken to the hospital and is in stable condition. There are no arrests yet, police said.

The crash comes just two months after the intersection was included in a revamp of several Downtown Brooklyn blocks to turn the roadways into "Shared Streets," meant to give equal domain to cars, pedestrians and cyclists over the road.

The pedestrian-friendly redesign — which goes from Pearl to Lawrence street on Willoughby Street and from Willoughby Street to Fulton Avenue on Pearl Street — was the first "Shared Street" to be added in Brooklyn.

It included bump-outs so that cars can still drive down the street, but will need to do so slowly to weave in and out of the new pedestrian spaces. Cars are encouraged to drive no more than 5 mph on the roads, transportation officials said at the time.

The shared street area is only a few blocks from two of the borough, and the city's, most unsafe roads.

Two intersections just a few blocks from the Shared Street spot were recently found to be two of the most dangerous for cyclists citywide.

The intersection where Jay Street meets Tillary Street, where bikers were injured 20 times in the last five years, tied for second place on a list of the most dangerous intersections for cyclists released by researchers at Localize.city. Not far behind was Jay Street's Myrtle Avenue intersection, which tied for seventh place on the list with 14 injuries between 2014 and 2018, the researchers found.