Truck Hits And Kills Teacher In Murray Hill, Police Say

MURRAY HILL, NY — A truck hit and killed a 27-year-old teacher as she crossed a Murray Hill street on Friday morning, police said.

Steven McDermott, 51, was driving a truck northbound on Third Ave., when he attempted to turn left on E. 37th St. and hit Sarah Foster, 27, police said.

The Murray Hill woman was declared dead at the scene by emergency services shortly after 5:45 a.m., police said.

Foster was a social studies teacher at Louis M. Klein Middle School in upstate Harrison.

"Sarah was an extraordinarily warm, talented and dedicated young teacher," school Superintendent Louis Wool said in a letter to the community. "During her time in Harrison, her contributions as a teacher, colleague, and coach were far-reaching.

"It will be Sarah's enthusiasm and joy for learning and for life, evident in all that she did, that will remain with all of those she touched. We extend our deepest condolences to Sarah's family."

Police believe Foster was crossing E. 37th St. heading northbound. The delivery truck was turning westbound onto 37th St. from Third Ave. when it struck the woman, police said.

McDermott, of Brooklyn, was arrested and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care, police said.

The NYPD Highway District's Collision Investigation Squad's investigation is ongoing.

Following the incident, Transportation Alternatives called for pedestrian refuges, protected intersections, and a traffic fix known as "daylighting," which involves removing parking spaces to improve turn visibility, along the six-lane avenue. The transportation advocacy group said had the Department of Transportation installed the "simple, commonsense, low-cost improvements," Foster would have been alive today.

"Third Avenue is a six-lane highway running through a pedestrian-dense and largely residential part of Manhattan, with no visible traffic-calming measures in place," interim executive director of TA, Ellen McDermott, said in a statement.

"Drivers of large vehicles and professional working drivers, like the truck driver who killed this 27-year-old, bear a great responsibility to travel with caution in crowded urban environments," McDermott said. "But the best way to force every driver to travel with care is to design streets that mandate safe behavior. As a nearby resident, this crash is a terrifying wake-up call. It's long past time for Mayor de Blasio to make Third Avenue safe, before another New Yorker is killed or injured."

A Department of Transportation spokesperson said in a statement: "DOT takes every fatality on our roadways seriously, and has a proactive program of redesigning streets to reduce tragedies like this one."

"As with all locations where a fatal crash occurs, DOT will evaluate the design of the street and the circumstances of the crash in order to improve the safety of that location," a DOT spokesperson said.