Police from the 114th precinct on Sunday arrested Luis Andrade, who Saturday night had smashed through a bus stop in Queens injuring a 7-year-old and four others.
Andrade, 32, is charged with two counts of leaving the scene of an accident causing injury, and failing to show license or identification at the accident scene.
“Saturday’s hit-and-run crash at 48th Street and Northern Boulevard in Woodside was a serious crime,” Council member Jimmy Van Bramer said in a statement. “The driver could have killed with that vehicle and this person must be prosecuted.”
Andrade was driving a white Mazda sedan. The injured pedestrians were taken to Elmhurst Hospital and are in non-critical condition. One of the five people was not struck, but was taken to the hospital as well due to high blood pressure.
“Sadly, this is yet another example of reckless driving in our City that has already claimed too many lives and injured countless individuals,” Van Bramer stated.
So far this year 12 pedestrian deaths have occurred on the streets of New York City.
Political will has increased in recent weeks to make city streets safer for pedestrians. In one weekend in January, three pedestrians were hit and killed by cars in a four-block radius in Manhattan near 96th St. and Broadway.
In the first month of his administration, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched a major safety reform on the issue, dubbed Vision Zero. De Blasio has vowed to bring pedestrian fatalities to zero in the next 10 years, partly by improving safety at the city’s most dangerous intersections.
Parts of Vision Zero have already been launched, including speeding tickets issued using the city’s traffic cameras and extra police assigned to direct traffic at dangerous intersections. A campaign to reduce the speed limit to 20 mph in certain problem areas of the city is also underway at the state level, with the backing of the mayor’s office.
