High Speeds On Hicks Street Causes 4-Car Collision

Another accident can be added to the list of collisions that have taken place on Hicks Street in Cobble Hill. On Friday, May 11 a four-car collision occurred when a blue minivan was unable to slow down between Degraw and Kane Streets. 

According to Tobey Grumet, at approximately 1:00p.m. Friday afternoon, "a blue minivan slammed into the back of a double-parked van, totaling its front end and the second van's back"—pushing two parked cars onto the sidewalk in the process.

"Observers say the minivan was going at least 70 mph, and didn’t notice the large red van standing in the middle of the street," Grumet wrote on BoCoCaLand. "This is at least the second time a car has lost control on this street because of excessive speeding."

Officers from the 76 Precinct were called to the scene. The only driver present was the individual behind the wheel of the blue minivan, who had "no visible injuries," Grumet told Patch. But that might not have been the case had anyone else been inside of the parked cars.

The stretch of Hicks Street that has long worried locals about safety has two lanes of northbound traffic and one lane of southbound traffic, separated by an overpass above the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. In fact, many drivers use the street to bypass traffic on the BQE between Hamilton Avenue and Atlantic Avenue.

After multiple complaints from Cobble Hill residents, the Department of Transportation announced that , near the dangerous intersection at Kane Street in February.

Just last month, however, a deaf at the corner of Hicks Street and Amity Street. Following that event, a sign and of Degraw and Hicks Street. But it appears even the speed tracker was not enough to prevent Friday's collision.

A proposed study looking into permanent speed bumps on Hicks Street—as well as other nearby crossings, like Henry and Kane streets and Henry and Baltic streets—would take months, and has since been squashed by the DOT, according to Kane Street Association leader Maureen Hogan. It begs the question: What else could be done to improve safety measures along Hicks Street?

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