This Queens Street Is Among Deadliest In The Nation: Study

WOODHAVEN, QUEENS — A corridor in central Queens has earned a new, unfortunate title: it's one of the most dangerous streets in the nation for pedestrians, according to a recent study.

The report, published earlier this year in the Journal of Transport and Land Use (JTLU), identified dozens of "hot spots" across the U.S. where at least six pedestrians lost their lives between 2001 and 2016, when the most recent federal data was available.

One of the worst spots is a stretch of Jamaica Avenue between 85th and 98th streets where six people were killed during that 16-year span.

The rating will likely come as no surprise to Woodhaven residents near the roadway. The stretch of Jamaica Avenue has been the site of hundreds of crashes in recent years, according to city data recorded in NYC Crash Mapper.

In addition to the fatalities, there have been 234 total crashes on the roadway since 2011, when the mapper's data is available.

In those crashes, 45 cyclists, 67 pedestrians, and 214 motorists were hurt, the data shows.

The corridor in Queens is among 11 other thoroughfares in Manhattan that make the deadliest street list,

10 other corridors in Manhattan made the deadliest street list, the JTLU study shows.

The study on fatalities, which was conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Arizona State University and the planning firm Toole Design Group, was first reported on by Streetsblog, who said it may be "the only attempt to map the U.S. corridors with the highest numbers of pedestrian deaths ever conducted."

Authors found that pedestrian fatalities are "at their highest level in nearly three decades" and make up an increasing share of total traffic deaths.

"To achieve the vision of a future transportation system that produces zero deaths, pedestrian safety must be improved," they wrote.

Almost all of the "hot spots" identified in the study are multi-lane roads, most of which force pedestrians to cross at least five lanes of traffic. Most bordered low-income neighborhoods.

Patch reporter Nick Garber contributed to this report.