‘Burg locals demand street safety updates after fatal crash

After four dead in three years, neighbors want dangerous streets near Cooper Park, including a truck route on Morgan Avenue.

Paul and the Brendan Kirgines

After a new fatal collision on Morgan Avenue, the locals are once again in the city to re -design the dangerous main road.

A 56-year-old man was killed by the driver of a large truck from Freightliner when he crossed the Laan over Sharon Street just before 8 hours on August 6, according to the NYPD. The victim, whose name has not yet been released, suffered from “serious trauma” and was declared dead on the spot. The police said the driver stayed on the spot and was not charged from 11 August.

It was the fourth fatal incident on Morgan Avenue since 2022.

“We know that Morgan Avenue is dangerous,” said Juan Serra of Friends of Cooper Park on a Vigil on 8 August. “Many of you are here time and time again.”

In 2022, Buren launched the “Make Morgan safe”Campaign after the 30-year-old delivery person Danny Vidal Was killed by a truck at the intersection of Morgan Avenue and Meadow Street. Months earlier, a driver was killed in a crash just a few blocks north, per city data.

Serra said that the group had collected hundreds of suggestions for improving Morgan Avenue, including adding a protected bike strip, pedestrian crossing and daylight and sent them to Dot in a letter. After the death of Vidal, he said, vowed that chosen officials would be done, but was nothing.

In 2023, the 56-year-old cyclist Eugene Schroeder was killed in a hit-and-run On the corner of Morgan and Johnson Avenues, and data show that dozens of cyclists, drivers and pedestrians have been injured in the Avenue in the last three years.

“So today we are here because another neighbor is dead, run over by a truck that just crossed the street for this beautiful park,” he said. “It didn’t have to be the case, because Morgan gets priority for trucks above people’s lives. It will not change until we have an extensive redesign of Morgan with a safe, protected bike strip, pedestrian crossings and daylight, with real enforcement against abuse.”

Morgan Avenue, who runs from Norman Avenue in Greenpoint to Flushing Avenue in Bushwick, is a designated truck route and crosses the NABE industrial business zone.

But the Avenue comes directly to the residential areas, and near Sharon Street, on the scene of the crash of 26 August, runs next to Cooper Park. Although the police said that the victim was crossing East-West ‘outside the marked pedestrian crossing’, there is no East-West Zebraad at the intersection of Morgan Avenue and Sharon Street, only one running north-south over Sharon Street.

“I don’t come to this park because I don’t have a safe way to get here,” said Greenpoint Resident Meryl Laborde. “Our neighbors deserve to be able to use this street to go to Bushwick, to go to work to visit their friends.”

Greenpoint -resident Heidi Vanderlee said that although Morgan Avenue is a direct route from Greenpoint to Bushwick, navigating the road is ‘moving’, and that the construction leaves pedestrians and cyclists without a clear travel path.

In 2023, the Ministry of Transport organized a “Street improvements workshop” to discuss possible improvements on Morgan Avenue, Metropolitan Avenue and Grand Street. The local chosen officials sent the following year One letter According to a laundry list with worries and suggestions regarding Morgan Avenue, according to Morgan Avenue Street blog.

But the Avenue has not been touched and Dot has not indicated that the planning has for a large redesign of the main road. The agency did not respond to Brooklyn Paper for comments.

“We need our chosen officials to support us, they promised that they will do something to solve this, they have promised us since 2022 that we no longer have deaths on Morgan Avenue, and then they do nothing to keep that promise,” Laborde said.

In a statement, local assembly member Emily Gallagher said that she was “destroyed” by the crash.

“Far too much crashes have taken place on Morgan Avenue in recent years,” she said. “We have to do more to ensure that hikers, cyclists and drivers are able to use Morgan Avenue safely. I will continue to work with local chosen and NYC Dot to increase protected cycling jobs and visible crossings here and around the city.”

Note from the editors: a version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn paper. Click here To see the original story.

Related stories

E -Mail tips@brownstoner.com with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner X And Instagramand like us on Facebook.