Residents Furious Over Continued Danger On Ocean Parkway In Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn is considered one of the borough's most dangerous streets for pedestrians, and a woman's recent death on the roadway has some residents angry.
As CBS 2's Tamara Leitner reported, they are wondering why nothing has been done to make the road safer, and now, the woman's widower has joined the fight.
"Sometimes you begin to say, 'Is this for real?'" said Silas Agbim, the widower of accident victim Ngozi Agbim.
Ngozi Agbim, a 73-year-old grandmother, was walking home from church as she crossed the busy intersection of Ocean Parkway and Church Avenue in Borough Park. A truck mowed her down right in the crosswalk.
"I'm depending on the prayers of people," Silas Agbim said.
The intersection is one of the most dangerous in Brooklyn. In recent years, two others have been killed and 22 injured at the same site.
Pedestrians dodge trucks and race through sidewalks, and residents say they are petrified to cross.
"I think it's very, very, very scary," said resident Maria Kocisova.
"I worry about it; worry about my kids crossing," another resident said.
Last year, the City Council allocated $200,000 to make the intersection safer by adding a median to the crosswalk. But the plan has been rejected by the state Department of Transportation.
"I'm appalled," said City Councilman Brad Lander (D-39th). "I don't know what it's going to take to get them to help us fix this intersection before somebody else gets killed."
And Lander said state officials have not even given a reason.
"I really don't understand what the state DOT is thinking," he said. "They haven't put it in writing. They haven't communicated with us directly."
A spokesman for the department told CBS 2, "We're working with the city… to try and come up with solutions to improve safety at the intersection for all users."
Silas Agbim said the inaction makes the pain of losing his wife even worse.
"For attention to be called for it and then nothing being done, as if it doesn't matter," he said.
He hopes by speaking out, he may spare others the pain he is going through.
"I can't get my wife back, but I don't want anybody to lose a mother, father, wife, children – anybody. Enough is enough," Agbim said. "It time that we move to do something."
On Wednesday afternoon, the state DOT said it had worked out the problem with the design and will soon move forward.
You May Also Be Interested In These Stories:
