BY ALBERT AMATEAU | A 12-year-old girl on her way home from Castle Middle School on Henry St. was struck and killed by a car around 2:40 p.m. Fri., Jan. 13, at Delancey and Clinton Sts. at the Williamsburg Bridge ramp.
Dashane Santana, a resident with her family in the Jacob Riis Houses between Avenue D and F.D.R. Drive, had dropped her book bag and bent down to retrieve it when the 2008 Toyota struck her.
Witnesses said the driver, 58, was headed onto the bridge when he hit the victim, and might have run over her again while backing up to investigate. Police said there was no criminality and the driver was not charged.
Dashane, in the sixth grade, had phoned her mother to tell her she was going with friends to the Dunkin’ Donuts before coming home. She was taken to Downtown Hospital where she died later.
Delancey and Clinton Sts. is a notoriously dangerous crossing. Borough President Scott Stringer said in a news conference that fatal accidents had occurred in May and August last year at the intersection.
At the nearby intersection of Delancey and Essex Sts. there were 523 auto accidents between 2008 and 2010, according to Transportation Alternatives, a civic group that promotes pedestrian and bicycle safety.
Stringer said he has demanded pedestrian safety measures in the area, including longer crossing times at traffic lights, more crosswalk markings and pedestrian traffic agents at crossings.
