Driver Fatally Injured 88-Year-Old Pedestrian on Northern Boulevard
The official record logged one pedestrian killed in a 9:25 p.m. crash at Northern Boulevard and 147 Street in Queens, and police told reporters a 52-year-old driver leaving a restaurant parking lot hit 88-year-old Thomas Soong, who died three days later.
What We Know
On March 11, 2022, police told reporters, a 52-year-old driver in a 2018 Honda Fit left the Butcher's Cut Korean restaurant parking lot and made a left turn onto Northern Boulevard in Flushing. Police said the driver hit Thomas Soong, 88, as Soong crossed mid-block near 147th Street; the official record places the crash at Northern Boulevard and 147 Street at 9:25 p.m. and records one pedestrian death. Soong suffered a head injury, was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, and died on March 14. The driver stayed at the scene, and police reported no arrest or charge as the Collision Investigation Squad continued its investigation.
Police described a left turn from a parking lot.
Police said a 52-year-old driver in a 2018 Honda Fit was making a left turn out of the Butcher's Cut Korean restaurant parking lot when he hit Thomas Soong on Northern Boulevard near 147th Street around 9:20 p.m. on March 11, 2022. The official vehicle entry describes a sedan traveling east and going straight ahead, while the press accounts citing police described the driver leaving the parking lot and turning left.
amNY reported that police said the driver crossed the double-yellow line and painted median and hit Soong in the left-most eastbound lane as Soong crossed from south to north in the middle of the block and outside a marked crosswalk. The same report noted that a police spokesperson could not say where the outside-crosswalk detail came from.
Thomas Soong died after three days in the hospital.
Soong, 88, suffered a head injury and was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens in serious condition, according to police accounts in the Daily News and amNY. He died on March 14, three days after the crash.
Marta Gonzalez, a neighbor who told the Daily News she had lived next door to Soong for 18 years, remembered his daily routines and said, "He always went out to walk, he always went out to swim at the YMCA."
Northern Boulevard has a documented crash burden.
The crash was recorded at Northern Boulevard and 147 Street in Queens. CrashCountNYC's corridor context for Northern Boulevard in Queens counts 3,399 crashes, 2,139 injuries, 137 serious injuries and 11 deaths from Jan. 1, 2022, through June 1, 2026.
amNY reported that Soong was hit on a 343-foot stretch of Northern Boulevard between 146th and 147th streets, a six-lane area with no marked crossings between the intersections and multiple parking-lot exits where drivers cross the sidewalk to enter or leave the road.
Records noted both pedestrian movement and yielding.
The official fatal-person record lists pedestrian error or confusion and failure to yield the right of way as contributing factors. The same record says Soong was crossing without a signal or crosswalk and was not at an intersection.
Police told reporters the driver remained at the scene. The Daily News reported that the driver was not charged, while amNY reported that police had made no arrests.