Cab Driver Crashes; Woman Dies on Queens Sidewalk
At Lefferts Boulevard and 115th Avenue around 3:11 a.m., a 23-year-old cab driver and a 25-year-old Honda driver collided, and police said the impact sent the cab onto the sidewalk, where Vidya Dookran-Franco was pinned before she died at Jamaica Hospital.
What We Know
At about 3:11 a.m. on Dec. 28, 2024, at Lefferts Boulevard and 115th Avenue in South Ozone Park, a 23-year-old cab driver in a Toyota RAV4 and a 25-year-old driver in a Honda Accord collided, according to police accounts and the official crash record. Police said the impact sent the yellow cab onto the sidewalk, where Vidya Dookran-Franco, 51, and two men, ages 44 and 49, were caught in its path. Dookran-Franco was pinned against a fence, according to a police source cited by the Post, and died after medics took her to Jamaica Hospital. The official record lists one pedestrian killed and two pedestrians injured, and lists traffic-control disregard as a contributing factor. News reports said both drivers remained at the scene and that no arrests had been made that day.
A pre-dawn collision sent a cab onto the sidewalk
Police told news outlets that a 23-year-old cab driver in a Toyota RAV4 and a 25-year-old driver in a Honda Accord collided near 115th Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard in South Ozone Park. The official record places the crash at 3:11 a.m. on Dec. 28, 2024.
The official vehicle entries describe eastbound travel for the taxi and northbound travel for the sedan before the crash. Police said the impact sent the yellow cab onto the sidewalk, where three pedestrians were hurt.
Vidya Dookran-Franco died after being taken to Jamaica Hospital
Vidya Dookran-Franco, 51, of Merrick, was one of three pedestrians taken to Jamaica Hospital. Police said she died there; news reports said two men, ages 44 and 49, suffered minor injuries or were in stable condition.
ABC7 reported that Dookran-Franco was a substitute teacher who was involved in her community. Her older sister told the station that Dookran-Franco had just left a bar down the block and was walking back to her car with friends when they were caught in the crash.
The crash happened on a Queens corridor with repeated severe harm
The crash was recorded at Lefferts Boulevard and 115th Avenue in South Ozone Park, Queens, where police and news reports also placed the collision.
CrashCountNYC location context for Lefferts Boulevard in Queens counted 709 crashes, 532 injuries, 26 serious injuries and 4 deaths from Jan. 1, 2022, through June 1, 2026.
The official record cites traffic-control disregard
The official crash record lists traffic-control disregard as a contributing factor. The taxi entry also lists driver inattention or distraction.
The Daily News reported that both drivers remained at the scene and that no arrests had been made as of Saturday, while the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad investigated.