QUEENS — Police in Jamaica are ramping up efforts to catch drivers who don’t yield to pedestrians, after the number of pedestrians struck by cars shot up by 14 percent this year, police officials said.
“We are going to enforce very strictly those cars that fail to yield to pedestrians,” said Captain Joe Seminara, the commanding officer of the 103rd Precinct, at a recent community council meeting.
About 58 percent of people hit by cars in the area “were crossing in the crosswalk, with the light and were hit by the cars turning,” Seminara said.
Earlier this month, a woman was left injured and stranded on a street in downtown Jamaica, after a driver struck her while she was crossing Liberty Avenue, near 170th Street.
From January to November this year, 676 drivers in Jamaica failed to stop for people crossing the street who had the right of way, including 124 in November alone, according to statistics provided by the NYPD.
“I’ve seen too many children hit by cars and too many elderly people hit by cars,” Seminara noted, adding that police officers will be slapping violators with summonses, which can be quite hefty if a pedestrian was hit.
It was not immediately clear how many pedestrians were struck by cars in the area this year.
