A motorcyclist is in the hospital Tuesday afternoon after allegedly slamming into a police squad car in East New York.
A police spokesperson said that the squad car was driving on Pennsylvania Avenue en route to a call of a “large fight involving bats” when a motorcyclist reportedly collided with the rear passenger-side door of the squad car near the intersection with Linden Boulevard. The incident occurred at about 3:15 pm Tuesday.
The spokesperson said that the motorcyclist was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where they are “conscious and alert,” while the officers were taken to Jamaica Hospital in Queens for an evaluation. An investigation is ongoing.
Linden Boulevard is one of the deadliest roads in the borough, especially east of Kings Highway where it is an eight-lane highway that nonetheless intersects with the regular street grid. A total of 25 people have died in collisions on Linden since 2011, all east of Kings Highway.
The city’s Department of Transportation in 2015 initiated a plan to implement street safety improvements on Linden as part of the mayor’s Vision Zero program, in which Linden is a “priority corridor” owing to its high number of pedestrian deaths. The city has implemented several measures in the intervening years, including lowering the speed limit to 25 miles per hour and enlarging medians, though street safety advocates contend that the measures are insufficient.
