Driver Charged After Construction Flagger Killed on Myrtle Avenue
At about 1:53 p.m. on Oct. 29, 2024, at Myrtle Avenue and Walworth Street in Brooklyn, police said driver Clyde Mercury hit and killed construction flagger Luis Mario Sangurima while trying to pass a slow box truck near a work zone.
What We Know
A 37-year-old man working in the roadway on Myrtle Avenue near Walworth Street in Brooklyn was killed in the afternoon when drivers in four oversized vehicles passed through his work area. According to the police report, a box truck and a pickup were traveling east and a flatbed truck and an SUV were traveling west when they hit and fatally injured him.
Police described a passing move through a work zone
The official crash record places the fatal crash at Myrtle Avenue and Walworth Street at 1:53 p.m. on Oct. 29, 2024, and records one pedestrian killed and one motorist injured.
Police told the Daily News that Clyde Mercury was driving east on Myrtle Avenue when he tried to get around a slow-moving box truck near Walworth Street. Police said he moved into oncoming traffic beside a construction zone, sideswiped the box truck, hit Luis Mario Sangurima, and then collided with an oncoming Honda Odyssey.
The worker was directing traffic when he was hit
The Daily News, citing police, identified the victim as Luis Mario Sangurima, 37, a construction flagger from Newark. The official record describes the pedestrian who was killed as a 37-year-old man who was working in the roadway away from an intersection.
According to the Daily News, surveillance video showed Sangurima wearing a reflective yellow vest and directing drivers through a narrow lane past the construction site.
Sources describe the driving vehicle differently
The Daily News described Mercury as driving an Enterprise rental van. The official crash record lists the eastbound passing vehicle as a 2023 Ford pick-up truck and also records an eastbound box truck, a westbound Honda SUV, and a westbound flatbed truck in the crash record.
Myrtle Avenue has seen repeated harm since 2022
The crash happened at Myrtle Avenue and Walworth Street in Brooklyn. CrashCountNYC location data for Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn records 1,603 crashes, 853 injuries, 44 serious injuries, and 5 deaths from the start of 2022 through June 1, 2026.