BROOKLYN PEDESTRIAN CROSSING STREET STRUCK AND KILLED BY VAN IN HORRIBLE ACCIDENT

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Brooklyn Car Accident Injury Attorney)

Fatal pedestrian knockdown accident on Thursday, March 31, 2011. Caroline Tunage, age 56, of Brooklyn, New York was crossing Columbia Street at its intersection with Summit Street.

A company van owned by Dirusso Electrical Contracting struck and killed her as she crossed the street at about 7:30 P.M.

A Brooklyn woman was fatally struck by a commercial van yesterday as she was crossing a notoriously dangerous intersection during her morning walk to work.

Police report that the van's driver of the van was distraught after striking down the woman.

Tunage was taken to Long Island College Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Coworkers and others who knew the deceased woman say that she loved wlaking the streets of Brooklyn. She particularly enjoyed getting off the New York City subway befoer her stop and strolling to her job at Time Moving & Storage, where she had been employed for some nine years as a receptionist.

She reportedly had strong relationships with three sisters, and an adult daughter, who attends New York's Fashion Institute of Technology.

She also never gave up on a dream to become a dancer -- a dream that motivated her many years ago to move to New York from Maryland.

Tunage was a "creative" employee and beloved by co-workers for drawing them holiday pictures, according to the owner of the company she worked for.

"It was a terrible shock. I just spoke to her last night," said Tunage's mother, Sarah. "She was only a few blocks away from work when it happened . . . We will all miss her tremendously."

No charges were brought against the van's driver, who had been turning from Summit Street.

Calls to the van's owner, Dirusso Electrical Contracting, were not returned.

According to a local school crossing guard, the intersection where the death occurred is accident prone. "They need some traffic lights here," said the crossing guard. "I've witnessed maybe 10 near-misses. Sometimes the trucks ignore the stop signs."

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PEDESTRIAN, AGE 76, STRUCK AND KILLED BY NEW YORK CITY CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT VEHICLE WHILE CROSSING QUEENS BOULEVARD    (Posted by Brooklyn Car Accident Injury Attorney Gary E. Rosenberg on August 7, 2010)