A 28-year-old nurse has died after being struck by a car in a hit-and-run crash in Brooklyn, New York. Jiayi Zheng was walking along a busy road in her scrubs after finishing an overnight shift at a local hospital on Saturday.
Footage captured the moment she was walking along 55th Street and Third Avenue when a black Cadillac sedan ran a red light and hit her at around 7.30am. Zheng was thrown into the air, just a block from where she worked. The driver did not stop.
Witness describes the crash
Medics rushed Zheng to the same hospital where she worked, but she died from her head and neck injuries. Witness Antonio Perez told News12 Brooklyn: "I heard the bang. Her bag was over here, and they left her there." He added: "The car just kept on, it never stopped for nothing at all."
The crash happened on a stretch of road that Sen. Andrew Gounardes, who represents the neighbourhood, described as perilous. A Department of Transportation redesign plan for the roadway was presented in 2023 but never went into effect.
Rising toll on city streets
Zheng is the ninth person killed by a hit-and-run driver in New York City in the last two weeks. According to advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, she is also the 11th person killed while walking or biking the two-mile stretch of Third Avenue that runs under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway since 2014.
As of Sunday afternoon, the driver had not been apprehended.
