Two Pedestrians Killed in Separate Chinatown Accidents This Month

Two senior citizens walking in Chinatown have been struck and killed by separate vehicles recently, in a spate of sudden tragedies.

In the first incident, 69 year-old Priscilla Loke was struck by a Citi Bike while crossing Chrystie St. on September 5. She reportedly violently struck her head on the ground, before succumbing to her injuries at Bellevue three days later. Footage of the accident released by CBS2 indicates that responding officers questioning the cyclist apparently let him ride off. However, police now claim that he “fled the scene” and are actively seeking his whereabouts.

The second incident occurred at around 11 a.m. on Friday, September 8. The NYPD informed Our Town Downtown that 88 year-old Ngan Yung suffered head and body trauma after a 43 year-old suspect named Michael Broughton–who was driving an Access-A-Ride van– slammed into her at the intersection of Canal and Allen Sts. She was pronounced dead after being rushed to NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue on 1st Avenue. Broughton was allegedly making a rightward turn from “eastbound Canal Street onto southbound Allen Street.” Police claimed that Yung was crossing the intersection from “from the southwest corner to the southeast corner.”

Broughton, who reportedly remained on the scene, was arrested and hit with two charges by officers: Failure to Yield & Failure to Use Due Care.

According to its NYC government website, the Access-A-Ride Paratransit Service “provides public transportation for eligible customers with disabilities or health conditions that prevent them from using the public buses and subways for some or all of their trips.” It operates around the clock. The service is run by the MTA.

Richard A. Davey, the NYC Transit president, told the media that his agency was cooperating with the authorities looking into Yung’s death.

A 2018 audit by then-City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer determined that there were various bureaucratic failures within the Access-A-Ride system. The audit specifically singled out Dedicated Carriers [DCs]–private contractors that operate the vans for the MTA– that reportedly failed to address customer complaints. Contract Managers, which oversee DCs, were also faulted as negligent. The report concluded that “these deficiencies create increased health and safety risks to AAR customers and to the general public.”

Of the 14 recommendations Stringer’s office made (thirteen of which the MTA accepted), one included: “NYCT [New York City Transit] should formally review and document its evaluations of individual Contract Manager’s performance in addressing referred complaints in order to ensure that adequate steps are taken and that proper assessments of DCs’ actions are made.”

It appears that Michael Broughton would’ve been a DC employee.