Queens dump truck driver Hector Yepes received a ticket after crossing guard's death.
A dump truck driver identified by ABC7 as Hector Yepes hit 63-year-old crossing guard Krystyna Naprawa while turning from Woodhaven Boulevard onto Atlantic Avenue in Queens on Oct. 20, 2023, in a crash recorded at 8:02 a.m.
Location reported in Open Data.
What We Know
ABC7 reported, citing police, that Yepes turned right from Woodhaven Boulevard onto Atlantic Avenue and hit Naprawa in the crosswalk after she had helped five people cross. Streetsblog separately quoted union executive Donald Nesbit saying she had helped four or five students cross Atlantic Avenue. ABC7 reported that Yepes remained at the scene and received a desk appearance ticket for failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to use due care. Naprawa had worked as a crossing guard since 2010.
A turn onto Atlantic Avenue
ABC7 reported, citing police, that Yepes was turning right from Woodhaven Boulevard onto Atlantic Avenue when he hit Naprawa in the crosswalk. ABC7 reported that she had helped five people cross; Streetsblog quoted union executive Donald Nesbit saying she had helped four or five students cross Atlantic Avenue.
The official crash record lists one pedestrian killed and no injuries in the crash.
A crossing guard devoted to her work
Naprawa had worked as an NYPD school crossing guard since 2010. Her son-in-law told ABC7 that she lived with family in Howard Beach, had moved to New York City from Poland 40 years earlier and had celebrated her birthday on September 28.
Port Authority PBA President Frank Conti identified Naprawa as the mother of Port Authority Police Officer Tomasz Naprawa. Union executive Donald Nesbit told Streetsblog, “Her job was everything to her.”
A busy Queens intersection
The crash happened at Atlantic Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens. Streetsblog described the roads as busy and extra-wide and reported, citing city data compiled by Crashmapper, that the intersection had 12 crashes in the first nine months of 2023, injuring seven vehicle occupants and one pedestrian.
The truck in the crash
The official record identifies a 2014 dump truck making a right turn. Audacy later reported that a plate identified the truck in this crash as a red 2014 Kenworth belonging to Manolos Trucking.
The driver received a desk appearance ticket
ABC7 identified Yepes as 39 and reported that he remained at the scene and received a desk appearance ticket for failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to use due care. Streetsblog's update also reported the two charges, citing an NYPD statement.