Progress is being made on the redesign of a dangerous intersection in Park Slope, where a driver ran a red light and fatally struck two young children in March.
The new enhancements will add about a mile of protected bike lanes on both sides of Ninth Street from Prospect Park West to 3rd Avenue in Park Slope, Gothamist reported.
Other changes in the vicinity include reducing double parking, narrowing lanes to restrict speeding, shorter crossings and more. The work is expected to be completed by mid-September, officials said.
“To say the March crash in Park Slope hit close to home would be an understatement,” Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose private residence is in the neighborhood, said Thursday before touring the area with other officials. “We cannot undo that terrible afternoon five months ago, but these safety improvements will help prevent future tragic crashes on this busy street.”
Park Slope intersection tragedy
On March 5, driver Dorothy Bruns ran a red light and struck a group of pedestrians in a crosswalk at Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue, killing 1-year-old Joshua Lew and 4-year-old Abigail Blumenstein. Abigail’s pregnant mother, Ruthie Ann Miles, was seriously hurt and later lost her unborn daughter due to her injuries.
Bruns, of Staten Island, told emergency responders on the scene that she had suffered a seizure, which caused her to accelerate through the red light. Evidence later showed she had two others immediately after the crash.
Bruns’ license plate had been citied for 12 traffic violations in the two years prior to the crash. Just two months before the deadly Park Slope incident, she had been ordered not to drive for one year after being hospitalized when she crashed into a parked car. Bruns faces up to 15 years for the March incident.
Ninth Street in Park Slope is a “high-crash corridor,” officials said Thursday, as 12 people were killed or seriously injured between 3rd Avenue and Prospect Park West between 2012 and 2016.
We can never bring Abigail Blumenstein or Joshua Lew back to their families, and my heart breaks a little every time I cross here. But the new safer crossings & protected bike lanes on 9th St will prevent future tragedies & make the street safer for all. So I’m grateful for them. pic.twitter.com/zOwUFqQO3Y
— Brad Lander (@bradlander) August 22, 2018
