STATEN ISLAND, NY- Silive.com reports that a construction worker is now facing four months of recovering time after he was struckby a trailer carried by a Chevy Silverado. The father, Chris Morales, who is from Eltingville, was near a school, close to the time school was dismissed, when the truck blew past him and hit […]
STATEN ISLAND, NY- Silive.com reports that a construction worker is now facing four months of recovering time after he was struckby a trailer carried by a Chevy Silverado. The father, Chris Morales, who is from Eltingville, was near a school, close to the time school was dismissed, when the truck blew past him and hit him with the trailer it was pulling.
Morales suffered abrasions and a leg that was broken in three places.
When the accident occurred, Morales was working, directing vehicles into the construction site. It was about 3:33 p.m. and Morales says there were children and parents leaving the nearby school when he was hit.
Morales is hopeful that the driver, who he says put children and parents at risk, and left him for dead, will be caught. Other workers at the scene yelled for the driver of the Chevrolet to stop, but he kept on going and left the scene. One of Morales’ colleagues followed the driver but lost track of the vehicle.
Morales has now been released from the hospital, but he is in a cast and needs crutches to walk. He cannot work, and his medical bills are adding up.
New York City has been boasting about the city’s Vision Zero program’s success in reducing the number of pedestrian deaths in the city. The Mayor’s office released a statement in early 2018 stating that the city had seen a 45% drop in pedestrian deaths since 2013, which is the year before the city implemented Vision Zero.
However, hit-and run accidents have been on the rise. In 2013 there were 36,000 hit-and-run crashes, while there were 46,000 in 2017. Even more disturbing, every year, only 1% of these accidents result in an arrest. The percent of drivers caught in fatal hit-and-run accidents or ones that result in serious injuries is higher, but it isstill less than 50%, indicating the city has a long way to go in improving safety for people on the road.
