Update: Jersey City identified the victim of Saturday’s fatal crash as a male cyclist, not a pedestrian as first reported. “It appears the driver attempted to turn left at the intersection when the vehicle made impact with the bicyclist,” said Jersey City spokeswoman Wallace-Scalcione told Patch. “The driver remained on scene and called 911.”
For the third time this year, a Jersey City pedestrian has been struck and killed by an automobile.
According to multiple sources, the accident occurred yesterday at 16th Street and Marin Boulevard at approximately 4 p.m.
The Hudson County Prosecutor told the Jersey City Times that the incident was being handled by Jersey City. Jersey City officials have not provided details of the crash.
Yesterday’s death is the third such incident this year. On March 5, a 55-year-old man was struck and killed in the area of Stegman Avenue and Garfield Avenue. The driver left the scene. On October 20, an 85-year-old man died after being hit by a minivan that fled from the scene.
Colin DeVries of Safe Streets Jersey City has termed crashes involving pedestrians an “epidemic.”
On Friday, the Fulop administration announced that the city was one of three cities in New Jersey to receive the 2023 Complete Streets Excellence and Champion Award from the Department of Transportation.
The award, said the city’s spokeswoman in a press release, “highlights Jersey City’s progress on 50 out of the plan’s 77 action items. Since 2018, the City’s Transportation Division has implemented nearly 680 speed humps, over 190 No Turn on Red restrictions, added new curb extensions to over 100 intersections, and built over 20 miles of protected bike lanes” as part of the city’s Vision Zero Plan.
Reducing traffic fatalities has been a priority of both the Fulop administration and local advocacy groups like Safe Streets Jersey City and Bike JC. In 2018, Jersey City became the first city in New Jersey to adopt Vision Zero, the international traffic safety framework that set a goal of zero traffic fatalities. In 2022, Jersey City logged zero traffic deaths.
Image courtesy of Google Streetview