A Year After A Fatal Crash, Stop Lights Set Up At Astoria Corner

ASTORIA, QUEENS — An Astoria intersection got a safety upgrade last week — almost exactly a year after a delivery worker was fatally hit by a driver at the same street crossing.

New traffic lights are now installed at the corner of 24 Avenue and 33 Street, the intersection where Mariano Canales, 27, died last Sept., when a person behind the wheel of a minivan drove into his scooter.

Prompted by Canales’ death, City Council Member Costa Constantinides, and a group of street safety advocates, urged the city’s Department of Transportation to look into possible safety upgrades along 24 Avenue — an ask that the agency seems to have heeded.

At the time, Constantinides told Patch that the roadway has long functioned as a “piecemeal highway,” since it feeds onto Astoria Boulevard and the Grand Central Parkway, and serves as a truck route onto the RFK/Triborough Bridge.

"Over the last two years, this vital thoroughfare has become incredibly unsafe —fatal in at least one case —and begs City intervention," Constantinides wrote in a letter to former Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg in the days after Canales’ death.

In addition to the 27-year-old’s death, 15 people have been hurt at the 24 Avenue and 33 Street intersection since 2017, city data shows.

Four of those injuries happened within the first eight months of this year, according to the data.

New neighborhood development, and the opening of a CTown supermarket at 32 Street last year, increased traffic on the area’s roads and sidewalks, locals say, making this stop light a welcome safety feature.

“Over the last 2-3 years, it's become harder to just cross the street,” wrote one local online, who thinks the light is a “great improvement” given the “gradual increase in traffic at this location.”

“So exciting! I've been waiting for the intersection to finally be finished. I truly hope this helps prevent fatalities and doesn't impede traffic,” wrote another, who was joined by a chorus of people celebrating the light’s installation.

One neighbor, however, said that even after the light was operational, they were almost hit by a driver, who sped through the intersection. “There may be a light there, but still keep your head on a swivel,” they wrote.

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 2021, according to city data highlighted by Transportation Alternatives.