A 22-year-old woman was killed in Manhattan last week when two taxi cabs hit her. She was crossing York Avenue in the Upper East Side when the first taxi collided with her, sending her into the path of the second cab.
The victim’s two companions, her sister and a male friend, witnessed the horrifying pedestrian accident.
The deceased woman was a 22-year-old student at Boston College. She was in New York City for job interviews. She was unfamiliar with the area and likely unaware that the hilly stretch of York near 85th Street is notoriously dangerous for pedestrians.
The hill prevents motorists and pedestrians from seeing each other until they are close, sometimes too close to avoid colliding. When people jaywalk – as witnesses said the trio was doing at the time of the accident – the danger is compounded.
The Manhattan taxi accident illustrates how NYC tourists can unknowingly put themselves in grave danger. Residents generally have an idea of what streets are especially deadly, but visitors are often clueless about their surroundings.
If a motorist is not paying close attention, a “near miss” can turn into a serious or fatal pedestrian collision.
Source: UPI.com, “Young New Jersey Woman Killed By Taxis During Visit To New York For Job Interviews,” Frances Burns, April 11, 2014
