By Sarina Trangle
RIDGEWOOD — A 60-year-old Ridgewood man died after he was struck by an MTA bus near Wyckoff Avenue and Palmetto Street at 5:07 a.m. Oct. 30, police said.
The Police Department said officers found Edwin Torres lying on the pavement of Palmetto Street with severe trauma about the body, and paramedics rushed him to Wyckoff Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The NYPD said its investigation found the victim was walking from the southeast corner to the northwest corner of Palmetto Street, when a MTA bus turning off Wyckoff Avenue and heading east onto Palmetto Street struck him. Its rear wheel hit the man, police said.
No arrests were made, and police said its investigation was ongoing.
Transportation Alternatives, a group that promotes the interests of public transit commuters, bicyclists and pedestrians, accused the bus driver of not yielding and called on the city to hasten its Vision Zero initiative to cut traffic accidents.
“We are saddened by the news of yet another fatal crash caused by an MTA bus driver who failed to yield the right of way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk,” Caroline Samponaro, deputy director of the group, said in a statement. “The driver struck and killed a pedestrian who was attempting to cross the hazardous intersection at Palmetto Street and Myrtle and Wyckoff avenues — the same location where Ella Bandes was tragically struck and killed by an MTA bus driver in 2013.”
Six pedestrians, one bicyclist and one motorcyclist were hit and killed by MTA bus drivers in 2014, according to Transportation Alternatives. Of the six pedestrians, five were crossing a street when struck by a turning bus, the group said. It claimed eight pedestrians died in MTA bus crashes in 2013.
