Three people are dead and one is in the hospital after their car struck a tree and caught fire near the Belt Parkway in Bay Ridge.
The crash took place at about 7:45 a.m. on Sunday on an access road to Exit 1 of the Belt Parkway, at Shore Road near 2nd Avenue. The car was driven into a tree and crashed with destructive force, mangling the automobile and engulfing it in flames.
Two women and one man were pronounced dead on the scene, a police spokesperson said. A fourth man was transported to NYU Langone Hospital in Sunset Park, and is in stable condition.
Police are still investigating the collision and would not share details on the cause of the crash. But the car, a white Toyota Corolla bearing a for-hire vehicle license plate, has been hit with 43 traffic violations since 2016, including four red light tickets and eleven school zone speed camera violations, including one as recently as April 16, according to How’s My Driving NY.
One horrified onlooker told amNewYork Metro that the stretch of road is notorious in the neighborhood for its inherent danger.
“This is a very dangerous stretch of road,” said Helanna Cardona. “It curves and twists once you get over in the 65th Street exit. There have been terrible crashes over the years.”
Back in 2008, bandits in a stolen car lost tailing police on the Belt Parkway before crashing into another vehicle carrying four passengers near the 65th Street exit, killing one and injuring three others, including a pregnant woman, as well as the two thieves. The New York Post reported the driver was a notorious Brooklyn hoodlum known to cops by the nickname “Trouble.”
In 2015, a passenger was killed after the car she was in flipped over at the 65th Street exit ramp; the driver sustained a severe arm injury, News 12 reported.
As of April 30 this year, 70 people have died in traffic collisions across the five boroughs in 2023, a 6% jump over the previous year, according to NYPD statistics.
