Running back into the street to get his fallen skateboard proved to be a deadly decision for a Bayside man who was fatally struck by a bus on the Forest Hills on Friday night, police said.
At approximately 6:27 p.m. on Friday, July 21, officers responded to a 911 call of a motor vehicle collision involving a pedestrian on the southbound Union Turnpike near the Grand Central Parkway.
Upon their arrival, they found 25-year-old Kevin Zeng, of Bell Boulevard in the Oakland Gardens section of Bayside, lying in the road with head trauma. EMS responded to the scene and transported Zeng to Jamaica Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
An investigation by the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad found that a NYC MTA bus was traveling southbound in the right center lane of Union Turnpike. As the bus approached the vicinity of Grand Central Parkway, Zeng was walking northbound on the designated sidewalk, located on the west side of the four travel lanes.
As Zeng was walking, he dropped the skateboard that he was carrying and chased it into the right center lane, putting himself in the direct path of the bus. The bus operator attempted to steer left to avoid Zeng, but Zeng continued into the bus’s path and was struck by the front right passenger side of the bus. The bus operator remained at the scene following the crash.
The investigation is ongoing.
