Two 75-year-old women from Queens are dead after being struck by drivers while walking, police announced.
On Tuesday, March 7, the NYPD announced the death of 75-year-old Rosaline Tulshi of St. Albans. Cops say Tulshi was crossing Jamaica Avenue near the intersection of 193rd Street when the 19-year-old driver of a Toyota sedan, traveling westbound, struck her in the roadway. Tulshi was transported to Jamaica Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The driver remained on scene, and no arrests have been made but the investigation remains ongoing.
The NYPD also announced Wednesday the death of 75-year-old Ana Rosa Infante, of Auburndale. Police say on Feb. 21, she was crossing 47th Avenue near the intersection of 192nd Street in Auburndale when the 18-year-old driver of a Lexus sedan struck her, leaving her with severe injuries to her head and body. Infante was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens Hospital in Flushing, where she was pronounced dead on March 3.
The driver remained on the scene, and no arrests have been made in the case.
A total of 255 people died in traffic collisions in the five boroughs in 2022, a decrease from 2021 but still well above a low of 206 seen in 2018. So far, 27 people have died in crashes in 2023, according to the safe streets advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, including 7-year-old Dolma Naadhum in Astoria.
Senior citizens like Tulshi and Infante are uniquely at risk of serious injury or death in traffic collisions. Seniors make up less than 15% of the city’s population but more than 45% of its traffic fatalities, the Department of Transportation found in a report released last year. In Queens, seniors compose 14% of the boroughwide population, but constituted a disproportionate 41% of traffic deaths between 2010 and 2019.
The report found that while seniors are not struck by drivers more often than their younger counterparts, the injuries they sustain tend to be more severe.
