Crime & Safety

Driver Hits, Kills Woman On Upper East Side: Police

A 51-year-old woman was fatally struck by an Audi driver in an Upper East Side intersection Monday morning, police said.

The crash happened around 6:37 a.m. Monday at the intersection of Third Avenue and East 76th Street. A 59-year-old woman driving an Audi sedan was turning right from 76th Street onto Third Avenue when she struck the victim.
The crash happened around 6:37 a.m. Monday at the intersection of Third Avenue and East 76th Street. A 59-year-old woman driving an Audi sedan was turning right from 76th Street onto Third Avenue when she struck the victim. (Google Maps)

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A woman was fatally struck by a car Monday morning while crossing an Upper East Side street, according to police.

The crash happened around 6:37 a.m. Monday at the intersection of Third Avenue and East 76th Street.

A 59-year-old woman driving an Audi sedan was turning right from 76th Street onto Third Avenue when she struck the victim, a 51-year-old woman, police said. (It was not immediately clear whether police erred in their description, since East 76th Street only turns left onto Third Avenue.)

Find out what's happening in Upper East Sidefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Responding to a 911 call, officers found the victim unconscious and unresponsive, with trauma to the body and head. She was rushed to Lenox Hill Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Police did not release the woman's name, pending family notification.

Find out what's happening in Upper East Sidefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

The driver stayed at the scene and was uninjured. Police did not announce any charges against her, but said an investigation is ongoing by the NYPD's Highway District Collision Investigation Squad.

Since 2011, at least 12 people have been injured in a dozen crashes at the same intersection, according to city data. Those injured included eight pedestrians, two drivers and two cyclists.

Hours later on Monday, a 43-year-old woman was fatally sruck by a van on the Upper West Side. Responding to the two crashes, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said that the city's recent spate of traffic deaths "simply can't continue."

Taurino Rosendo Morales, a 37-year-old delivery worker, was killed on Christmas Eve when a box truck driver sped into the intersection at East 61st Street and Third Avenue. (Workers Justice Project)

"Our intersections have become by far the most dangerous places in the public right of way," Levine said in a statement. "We must make them safer by pursuing bold investment and redesign of these dangerous corners, focusing on daylighting and calming measures in our most trafficked intersections, as well as investment in transit and bike infrastructure so that we can reduce the number of cars on our streets and provide more space for people.

Monday's crashes also came weeks after a pair of fatal collisions on the Upper East Side took the lives of three men — all of them immigrant workers, including two delivery cyclists — and spurred calls for safety reforms.

Mayor Eric Adams vowed last week to redesign 1,000 intersections across the city, adding raised crosswalks, bike corrals, turn signals and other traffic-calming measures to improve safety.

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