The Discovery Channel is featuring “The Boulevard of Death” alongside streets in Maryland and Arizona as the three most…
By Brendan Browne
Queens Boulevard’s local reputation for pedestrian peril and countless tragic accidents is now being recognized nationally.
The Discovery Channel is featuring “The Boulevard of Death” alongside streets in Maryland and Arizona as the three most dangerous roadways in the country this week on its “Deadly Crossings: American Intersections.”
The program was aired Wednesday and will be shown again on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“Queens Boulevard has been used as a speed highway for cars,” said Norbert Chwat, who was interviewed for the program about his efforts to change traffic laws on the thoroughfare. “There has been a fight between the (pedestrians) and the cars and the cars win.”
Though traffic rule changes to the 10-lane boulevard over the past 18 months have helped reduce average annual fatalities, it still can be very risky for pedestrians, especially children and seniors, to cross the road, said Chwat.
At least 76 people, many of them pedestrians, have died on Queens Boulevard since 1993, Chwat said.
Cars often speed out from side roads and quickly turn onto Queens Boulevard with little regard for the pedestrians, he said. For example, Sofia Leviyev, an eighth-grader from Rego Park, was killed in November 2000 as she tried to cross Queens Boulevard at 67th Avenue.
Jaywalkers also have caused problems as they try to scurry across Queens Boulevard, which is wider than the Grand Central Parkway, Chwat said
The frequent accidents spurred on Chwat and his civic association, the Forest Hills Action League, to push local politicians to find ways to tighten traffic regulations on Queens Boulevard, he said.
Chwat organized a 100-person march in December 2000 that he led from the 112th Precinct on Austin Street to Queen Boulevard and to the spot where Leviyev was killed to call attention to the issue, he said
In March 2001, the time allotted for pedestrians to cross the street was boosted from 35 seconds to a full minutes, Chwat said.
The city Department of Transportation also lowered the speed limit to 30 miles per hour on the boulevard, added two red-light cameras and 400 safety signs, created a new parking lane to slow traffic on the service road and installed three-foot-high barriers to curtail jaywalking.
Still, before the end of 2001, another pedestrian was killed. Shom Singh, a 69-year-old man from Elmhurst, scaled a barrier near 71st Avenue and was hit by a sport utility vehicle while crossing Queens Boulevard.
Chwat said he believes only a major re-engineering of the roadway would make it completely safe.
Reach reporter Brendan Browne by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 155.
