Driver Yan Yeoh pleaded guilty after fatal Jamaica Hills crash.
Driver Yan Yeoh struck pedestrian Daniel Zuzworsky, 24, while turning left onto the Grand Central Parkway service road on January 27, 2023; the official record lists one pedestrian killed in the crash.
Approximate reported location.
What We Know
Police said Yeoh was turning left from Homelawn Street onto the eastbound Grand Central Parkway service road when he struck Zuzworsky as he crossed. The official record lists the crash at 8:40 a.m. on January 27, 2023; QNS separately reported a 911 call at 8:43 a.m. Yeoh pleaded guilty to misdemeanor failure to exercise due care and received a $250 fine, a defensive-driving course and a condition that he not be arrested for another year, Streetsblog reported.
A left turn onto the service road.
The official record lists the crash at 8:40 a.m. on January 27, 2023, at Grand Central Parkway and Home Lawn Street, and records one pedestrian killed. QNS reported that police responded to a 911 call at Homelawn Street and the Grand Central Parkway service road at 8:43 a.m.
Police said Yan Yeoh, 63, was driving a 2013 Mercedes-Benz and turning left from Homelawn Street onto the eastbound service road when he struck Zuzworsky as he crossed. Yeoh remained at the scene. QNS reported that EMS took Zuzworsky to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Descriptions of the crossing signal differ. The official record describes Zuzworsky as crossing with no signal, while Streetsblog reported that he had the light.
A crossing beneath the parkway.
The crash happened at Homelawn Street and the Grand Central Parkway service road in Jamaica Hills. Streetsblog reported that the crossing is one of the few connections beneath the parkway and attracts foot traffic from students at nearby St. John's University.
Streetsblog reported that transportation officials had identified drivers failing to yield while turning toward the on-ramp. It also reported that the city extended the curb to shorten the crossing months earlier, after a 2019 crash seriously injured a pedestrian in a similar turn.
A medical scribe with creative ambitions.
Streetsblog described Zuzworsky, 24, as a Queens native and medical scribe who enjoyed Dungeons and Dragons and hoped to become a fiction writer. His mother, Faye Zuzworsky, remembered him as "very sweet, very helpful" and said he enjoyed virtual role-playing games with friends.
A guilty plea and a disputed sentence.
QNS reported that police arrested Yeoh on February 21 and charged him with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to use due care resulting in serious injury. Streetsblog reported that Yeoh pleaded guilty on May 15 to misdemeanor failure to exercise due care. Judge Quynda Santacroce imposed a $250 fine, a defensive-driving course and a condition that Yeoh not be arrested for another year.
Zuzworsky's father, John, criticized the sentencing hearing, telling Streetsblog, "It felt like Daniel was not important; the life of my son was brushed aside as nothing." Yeoh's lawyer, Sean Chun Yuen, said Yeoh "didn't really see" Daniel and called the crash "just a tragic accident."