Pedestrians have been doing a dangerous dance with vehicles along a Long Island City corridor long before a high school student was fatally killed this week, stakeholders charge.
Tenzin Drudak’s deadly encounter with an out-of-control minivan on Monday has mobilized officials and students that are calling for Thomson Ave. and the nearby streets to be revamped.
“This is a ticking time bomb, one that tragically has already resulted in the death of a 16-year-old high school student,” City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said at a news conference Thursday near the crash site.
Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) is pushing the city Department of Transportation to analyze the streets near the fatal accident and install more barricades along the sidewalk.
“Within a week the DOT should be out here conducting a comprehensive study,” the lawmaker said. “We’ll shame them if we have to.”
Drudak was one of six people struck by an out-of-control van. It hit a lamppost, plowed into the six pedestrians and came to a stop when it hit a tree across from the college, witnesses said.
A makeshift memorial has been erected at the site with flowers, candles and personal notes.
“We played basketball together,” said Tenzin Shamphel, 16, a friend of Drudak’s. “It’s really sad. I was shocked.”
Shamphel said Drudak wanted to be a rapper.
The corridor has been a long-standing concern for LaGuardia Community College students long before Drudak’s death. A coalition of students circulated a petition last summer to get the streets fixed.
“It’s our fear every day when we cross the street,” said Shah Amanant, 27, head of student government for the school. “It could have been me.”
Several students told the Daily News that they have experienced near-misses with motorists, and complained that traffic light sequences force them to sprint across the street to safety.
“It’s a legitimate demand from the students,” said Amanant, of Jackson Heights.
The petition gained modest traction among students of the commuter college, picking up 500 signatures. It was forwarded to Van Bramer and the DOT, but ignited no action, Amanant said.
A DOT official said the agency is working with the college to bolster safety in the area.
“Safety enhancements that are under consideration include sidewalk extensions at this intersection, among other significant improvements,” said agency spokesman Scott Gastel.
He downplayed the students’ assertions that safety is a daily concern along the nearby streets, citing a relatively clean accident record for the location.
“This week’s fatal crash was the first at that location in at least the last decade that we searched, and there was one pedestrian injury in 2011, the most recent year for which data is available,” Gastel said.
Drudak’s family was scheduled to appear at Thursday’s news conference, but were too distraught to speak publicly about the student’s death, officials said.
With Barry Paddock and Vera Chinese
idejohn@nydailynews.com
