Apr. 30, 2023 By Ben Brachfeld
Two men were killed Friday after separate fatal traffic collisions in Queens, including one where the driver fled the scene.
Just before 4:40 a.m. on April 28, police say 58-year-old Darryl Younger, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, was crossing Jackson Avenue, near 50th Avenue, in Long Island City when he was struck by the driver of a black BMW SUV. The driver fled the scene and has not been identified or caught.
Police found Younger lying in the roadway unconscious and unresponsive, with severe head and body trauma. He was taken across the river to New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center on the Upper East Side, where he was pronounced dead.
The Daily News reports that Younger worked for the Department of Education as a school lunch loader and handler, and was active in his union. He was just blocks from his workplace in Long Island City en route to an early morning shift when he was killed.
The carnage continued in Queens just before 9 p.m. Friday, 16 hours after Younger’s death. Across the borough in Flushing, 66-year-old Anthony Lardo was just steps from his home at 41st Avenue and 147th Street at about 8:50 p.m., when police say a 68-year-old man driving a Toyota SUV struck Lardo as he was running across 41st Avenue. Lardo was struck by the vehicle’s passenger side front corner and was knocked to the roadway.
Police found Lardo on the ground with severe head and body trauma. He was rushed to New York Presbyterian-Queens in Flushing, where he was pronounced dead.
The driver remained on the scene. No arrests have been made in relation to the incident.
So far this year, 66 people had been killed in traffic collisions on New York City streets as of April 23, according to NYPD statistics. That’s a 5% increase over the 63 killed in the same time period last year.