State lawmaker hit by driver in Queens calling for safer streets
NEW YORK - A state lawmaker hit by a driver in Queens earlier this month is using the accident to fuel calls for safer streets.
What she remembers most vividly is the sound of screeching brakes.
"I stepped out a few inches, and next thing you know, I'm on the floor," Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas said.
She was following the walk signal to cross 78th Street in Jackson Heights when she was struck by a car turning left. The driver, whose view had been obstructed by a car parked near the 35th Avenue crosswalk, stopped to help.
"I broke my wrist, which I kind of felt right away," she said.
Weeks later, her injury still throbs with pain, but she counts herself among the lucky ones.
"I'm just grateful I'm here to tell the story," she said.
For locals in the area, traffic violence is nothing new.
Seven-year-old Dolma Naadhum was struck by a SUV in Astoria last year. She did not survive. In 2023, there were more than 900 crashes involving a pedestrian or cyclist in western Queens alone. Officials say traffic fatalities in the borough have been on the rise.
That's why Assemblymember González-Rojas is joining city and state lawmakers in backing the Western Queens Street Safety Plan, a sweeping proposal whose measures aim to curb accidents like hers.
A road map for the DOT and state legislature, the plan includes slowing traffic in residential areas, building up infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists, and implementing universal daylighting, which means removing parking spots next to crosswalks to enhance visibility.
"A majority of people already walk, bike, use transit," Laura Shepard, Queens organizer for Transportation Alternatives, said.
She says the plan would benefit all road users.
"Astoria and other western Queens neighborhoods have been long ready for this," she said.
Assemblymember González-Rojas is bringing the fight to Albany.
"Just the fact that it happened to someone like me, who is extremely alert and very mindful of this — it can really happen to anyone," she said.
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