Tragic consequences of pedestrian deaths still problem for city, despite decreases

Notable Brooklyn pastor killed by SUV

February 21, 2023 Daniel Cody

Traffic points of interest for the city’s Vision Zero plan. Photo courtesy of NYCDOT

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FLATBUSH – Aracely Courtenay, a notable pastor and mother of three, was struck and killed in Flatbush over the weekend, according to the NYPD.

The fifty-year-old neighborhood figure was trying to cross East 21st Street in Flatbush just before 7 p.m. on Saturday when she stepped into a divot in the concrete and tripped onto the ground.

Courtenay was then hit by a Toyota SUV heading north on East 21st while the vehicle was turning onto Ditmas Avenue. She suffered severe head trauma and was later pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital Center on Saturday.

The driver who operated the SUV stayed at the scene afterward, according to the NYPD via the New York Post.

“Emmanuel Family, it is with a heavy heart that we share with you the untimely and unexpected passing of our beloved Pastor Aracely Courtenay, our 1st Lady,” wrote the Emmanuel Church of God, where Courtenay is First Lady and assistant pastor, in an Instagram post on Sunday.

Pedestrian deaths remain the highest in Brooklyn among all five boroughs, according to the “Vision Zero” reports and initiatives started under Mayor Eric Adams and the NYCDOT.

Over the weekend of Feb. 18-19, two other separate crashes resulted in pedestrian deaths, including that of a seven-year-old in Astoria, according to Streetsblog. Online, people expressed their anger at the government’s implementation of safety measures.

“Every single street @NYC_DOT repaves gets more and more dangerous for pedestrians,” wrote Jason Rabinowitz, @AirlineFlyer, on Twitter from Brooklyn.

“My neighborhood is littered with incomplete crosswalks because they just paint around parked cars. Of course this paint comes nearly half a year after the street was torn up. Such quality, fast work.”

The city government has said it has stepped up initiatives to make sure pedestrian infrastructure like crosswalk signs and “safety improvement projects” are properly installed or implemented.

Pedestrian deaths per 100,000 people in New York City. Graph courtesy of the NYCDOT

On Feb. 14, the city released data on the areas in need of improvement. The most recent Vision Zero report indicates an overall decrease of 38% in pedestrian deaths at intersections of interest in Brooklyn. From 2017 to 2021, there were 171 pedestrians killed or severely injured in Brooklyn, 34% of the city’s total total share of pedestrian deaths.

Brooklyn’s priority corridors, where pedestrian accidents accumulate the most, saw a 9% increase in pedestrians killed or severely injured from 2017-2021. From January 2022 to January 2023, 42 out of 64 people killed in crashes in Brooklyn were pedestrians, according to crashmapper.org.

Accidents involving biking, AWOL vehicles and other obstacles have invigorated movements for ‘car-free’ zones in recent years. Car-free spaces, like the proposal for Grand Army Plaza, would decrease the volume of cars in dangerous areas and restrict times that traffic can flow.

The Brooklyn Eagle has reported on various traffic-related pedestrian incidents, including a vigil of a senior in Bay Ridge who was struck by a car in reverse in January of 2023.

In response to the U-Haul attack on Feb. 13 in Bay Ridge, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams released a statement on Feb. 14 and an adjoining bill proposal that would require the NYCDOT to issue reports on traffic safety every three years in lieu of the current period of every five years.

The intersection of Ditmas Avenue and East 21st Street, where Aracely Courtenay was struck. Photo courtesy of Google Maps

“Unfortunately, while yesterday had unique circumstances, it is part of a larger problem that our city bears witness to,” lamented Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams.

“For years, traffic violence has been dubbed a ‘silent epidemic.’ In 2022, 255 people died from traffic crashes, and our city has not seen this figure go below 200 for years. Even with the launch of Vision Zero, the lowest number of fatalities since the inception of the program was 208 people in 2018. Every person who is a part of these numbers should be alive today.”

The updates provided by NYCDOT on Feb. 14 indicate that NYC is well below the soaring rates of traffic-related and pedestrian deaths nationwide.

Malcolm X Boulevard from Broadway to Fulton street was exceptionally dangerous in the city’s traffic studies of Brooklyn, with 17 total pedestrian deaths from 2017 to 2021, according to the NYCDOT’s update.