The driver of the Green Line…
By Jennifer Warren
A 49-year-old Kew Gardens woman who worked for the Yiddish Forward newspaper was struck and killed by a Green Line Bus at the corner of Austin Street and Lefferts Boulevard at 6:15 p.m. Thursday in Kew Gardens, police said.
The driver of the Green Line bus, whose name was not released, was not charged or issued a summons, said Detective Theresa Farello, a police spokeswoman. The driver was tested for drugs and alcohol consumption and the results were negative, said Officer Augustine Calas of the 102nd Precinct, who said the driver was not considered at fault.
“Right now we’re not looking at it other than just an accident,” Calas said.
The pedestrian, Elena Leikind of 84-51 Beverly Rd., was crossing Lefferts Boulevard at an angle outside the crosswalk on the dark and heavily raining evening, said Aamer Ghias, a clerk working across the street at Reo Pharmacy when the accident occurred.
This was the second fatal pedestrian accident involving a Green Line bus within the past two months. On Feb. 1, a Green Line bus driven by David McFadden struck 83-year-old Eugene Eisenberg, also of Kew Gardens, as he crossed Queens Boulevard at 80th Road.
The bus company had no comment because the investigation into the accident was still ongoing, said Jamie Van Bramer, a spokesman for the Green Line Bus company.
After traveling down Austin Street, the Route 640 bus made a righthand turn, and as is often the practice when navigating the tight corner, the bus drove temporarily into the adjacent lane to complete the turn, Ghias said. As the bus straightened out into the southbound lane of Lefferts Boulevard, Leikind was struck and caught beneath the back right wheel, he said.
She was killed instantly, said the pharmacy clerk who called 911 and then with others at the scene rushed to help Leikind who lay beneath the bus.
Leikind, an emigre from Lithuania and Israel, had worked for the Yiddish version of the Forward newspaper for more than 10 years as an editorial assistant and translator.
“She liked to talk to people,” said Samuel Norich, general manager of the Forward Association, who had worked with Leikind for 3 1/2 years. “People would call up with advertising notices or obituaries and she often got into extended conversations about their lives and her life. She was a very open and warm person.”
Leikind and her family lived in Kaunas, Lithuania until 1971 when they immigrated to Israel. In 1983 Leikind came to the United States.
Described by her editor as “affable and engaging,” Leikind was also fond of sharing photographs of her nieces in Israel, where her family still lived.
Just last summer she brought her parents, Raisa and Israel Leikind, on a 50th wedding anniversary cruise to Mexico. “She paid for the whole thing,” said Kew Garden neighbor Janice Riccio, who served with Leikind on their apartment building’s admission committee and wrote about the trip for their building’s newsletter.
Officer Augustine Calas of the 102nd Precinct said the corner where the accident occurred, while narrow and hilly, was the site of few accidents.
But others say the corner was ripe for a fatal collision. Dr. Rudy Vourkas, who for 30 years has lived on Austin Street just around the corner from the accident site, said he has seen a large number of near misses.
“The bus has no flexibility to negotiate when making the turn,” Vourkas said. And although a premature stop line was recently added to ease the congestion of the corner, few drivers obey the signage and leave the intersection clear, he said.
Reach reporter Jennifer Warren by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 155.
