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Read the press release here.

Community Boards Making Lists of Perilous Streets for Vision Zero Plan

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | February 20, 2014 6:04pm
 The Queens Borough President will offer recommendations to improve traffic safety in the borough.
Dangerous Intersections in Queens
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QUEENS — The Queens Borough President has asked local Community Boards to submit lists of areas in the borough that might be dangerous to pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers.

The effort is part of Mayor Bill De Blasio's "Vision Zero" plan, which has the goal of eliminating traffic-related deaths in the city.

Borough President Melinda Katz met with districts managers Tuesday and asked them to compile lists of intersections that they consider hazardous for pedestrians, drivers and bicyclists, and require safety improvements, such as stop signs or traffic lights.

She will later "review them and make her recommendations to the mayor's office," said Katz spokesman Michael Scholl.

“We are in the process of putting it together,” said Frank Gulluscio, district manager at Community Board 6, which covers Forest Hills and Rego Park.

Gulluscio said that there are a number of locations in the area that are considered perilous for pedestrians, including intersections along Yellowstone and Queens boulevards, where dozens of pedestrians have been killed over the years.

Peter Beadle, a member of the Community Board 6 Transportation Committee, said one location that requires improvement is at 64th Road and Saunders Street in Rego Park. Unlike at most intersections in the area, which have four-way stop signs, at that crossing only drivers going along Saunders Street have to stop.

Beadle said that about two weeks ago, his son, 12-year-old Jacob, was walking in the crosswalk, when a car approached the intersection without slowing down. “He had to jump to get out of the way and in the process he really injured the tendons holding his kneecap,” he said.

Community Board 6 recently sent a letter to the Department of Transportation requesting all-way stop signs at the intersection, Beadle said.

Beadle said his son "can barely walk now."

"We got a wheelchair for him.”

Between 1995 and 2005, there were at least three accidents at the intersection during which at least three people were injured, according to CrashStat map, a project of Transportation Alternatives, which analyzes accidents around the city.

“We are all participating in the Vision Zero to make the city safer," Gulluscio noted.