Nurse’s Death Revives Fight To Redesign Deadly Brooklyn Stretch

SUNSET PARK— The fatal hit-and-run that killed a nurse in Sunset Park has renewed pressure on City Hall to overhaul one of Brooklyn's most dangerous corridors, where 11 pedestrians and cyclists have been killed in hit-and-run crashes along a roughly two-mile stretch.

Jiayi Zheng, 28, was crossing Third Avenue beneath the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on Saturday morning when a black Cadillac Escalade struck her and fled, according to police.

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Zheng had just finished an overnight shift at nearby NYU Langone-Brooklyn.

The week before Zheng was killed, hit-and-run drivers killed three cyclists.

Days after her death, another hit-and-run driver struck and killed a 22-year-old pedestrian in a West Village crosswalk, prompting street-safety advocates to organize a "die-in" outside City Hall and demand that Mayor Zohran Mamdani "stop the carnage."

What Has The City Proposed For Third Avenue?

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes and City Council Member Alexa Avilés now want NYCDOT to return with a concrete plan covering Third Avenue from 65th Street to Prospect Avenue.

The lawmakers pointed specifically to the section between 54th and 62nd streets, where they said their offices receive the most complaints about dangerous driving and where crashes have killed and seriously injured residents.

NYCDOT presented redesign concepts to Community Board 7 in 2023, and the board supported them in 2024.

But the lawmakers said the Adams administration subsequently put further work on the proposal on hold.

The pause came under scrutiny after a speeding driver ran a red light and killed two men crossing Third Avenue at 52nd Street about a year ago.

The deaths occurred along the same stretch that residents had urged the city to redesign.

The lawmakers want the department to commit to an actual redesign and safety plan and return to the community with specific proposals, rather than another round of concepts.

The lawmakers also asked NYCDOT Commissioner Mike Flynn to walk the corridor with them so he can see firsthand the dangers the roadway poses to pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.

"There has been no engagement from DOT with the community to explain the delay, or to propose other ideas so that our residents do not continue being mowed down by reckless cars speeding on unsafe roadways," the joint letter to Flynn read.

Could Third Avenue Finally Be Redesigned?

The Mamdani administration has signaled that it is reconsidering changes to the corridor, but residents may still have years to wait.

Days before Zheng's death, the administration announced a plan to renovate the BQE that includes "a traffic safety redesign of Third Avenue in Sunset Park."

The city does not plan to implement that redesign until 2030, according to the information provided.

How Often Are Hit-And-Run Drivers Caught?

In 2025, drivers fled the scene in 34,952 crashes involving property damage or personal injury, according to NYPD data.

Police made arrests in 362 of those cases, about 1 percent.

In the first quarter of 2026, the NYPD recorded 16 hit-and-runs involving critical injuries and made five arrests, according to the department's most recent available data.

A 2019 Streetsblog investigation found that hit-and-run cases involving injuries were also rarely prosecuted at the time.

Of 5,699 crashes involving serious or non-serious injuries in 2019, 492 resulted in an arrest, less than 9 percent, according to the investigation.