A 72-year-old man in an electric mobility scooter was fatally struck by a driver in a Bronx crash Saturday evening, May 7, according to police.
Throggs Neck resident John Dellacava was trying to cross E. Tremont Avenue near Roosevelt Avenue just before 8:15 p.m. when a 25-year-old woman heading north in a Toyota minivan struck the elderly man.
Paramedics rushed Dellacava to Jacobi Hospital where he died from internal injuries, according to police.
The driver stayed on the scene and cops said they don’t suspect any criminality in the case, however, an NYPD spokesperson did not clarify how investigators came to that conclusion.
The Police Department’s Highway District Collision Investigation Squad continues to investigate the incident and the city’s Department of Transportation is tasked with reviewing the street design at the location.
There are no crosswalks at that section of E. Tremont Avenue and the multi-lane two-way road has a bend in it, potentially making it harder to see drivers heading north.
The next-nearest marked crosswalks with signals are a block north at Randall Avenue or two blocks south at Schley Avenue.
Dellacava’s death happened just over a mile away from his home and comes on top of at least eight other New Yorkers killed in traffic over the past week, and as the number of collisions in the Five Boroughs continues to rise this year from an already record-breaking year in 2021.
There have been 80 crashes since 2011 on the stretch of the avenue between the next two crosswalks at Randall Avenue and Schley Avenue, according to data collected by the website NYC Crash Mapper.
Those collisions have injured 101 people and killed two, one other pedestrian at the exact same intersection and a motorist at Schley Avenue, according to the data.
The Saturday evening crash was similar to the incident on Feb. 5 in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, when a driver mowed down 99-year-old Holocaust survivor Jack Mikulincer, who was also trying to cross a busy street in a similar wheelchair, blocks away from any marked pedestrian crossing.
