After Fatal Crash, Midtown Board Pushes Time Warner Center Fixes

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — After a woman was killed by a driver pulling out of the Time Warner Center parking garage, a Midtown community board is pushing the company that owns the complex to make safety improvements.

The April 3 crash killed 73-year-old Kathie Coblentz, who lived steps away and was the third-longest serving employee of the New York Public Library. Police said Coblentz was walking west on West 58th Street when she was hit in the roadway by a man pulling his Honda Minivan out of the underground garage, causing Coblentz to fall backward and hit her head on the pavement.

Initially conscious and alert, she later died at Mount Sinai Saint Luke's Hospital. The driver stayed at the scene and has not been charged.

Coblentz was mourned by her colleagues at the public library and honored in the pages of the New York Times, in an obituary that described her as a "Renaissance woman" who read or spoke 13 languages, meticulously catalogued items and adored movies and the New York Yankees.

Her death also resonated in Hell's Kitchen. Last Saturday, Martin and Kathleen Treat — who lived near Coblentz but did not know her — stood for hours outside the garage entrance, holding a sign with a photo of Coblentz and shouting warnings to passersby as they crossed the driveway.

On Wednesday, Community Board 4 voted unanimously to send a letter to Related, the real estate company that built the Time Warner Center, requesting seven measures to prevent future crashes.

The requests included working with the city to remove the scaffolding that currently covers the street — and which the board fears may block pedestrian sightlines — and temporarily closing the 58th Street exit until the scaffolding is taken down. (The garage has another exit on 60th Street.)

The board also argued that the driveway entrance is out-of-step with a 2013 zoning amendment requiring stop signs and speed bumps, and limiting driveway widths to 22 feet. (Existing driveways did not need to change after the 2013 amendment, but the board said the garage could be "easily" brought into compliance.)

A spokesperson for Related declined to comment.

Police did not have any updates Thursday about the investigation into Coblentz's death, which was being handled by the NYPD's Collision Investigation Squad.

Since 2017, at least six pedestrians have been injured in crashes on West 58th Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues, according to the city's Vision Zero data.

Previous coverage: Woman, 73, Dies After Being Hit By Car Near Columbus Circle