A 4-year-old boy, identified as Zachariah Padilla, was killed in a pedestrian accident the morning of March 5, which officials say involved and hit-and-run driver. According to a Streetsblog news report, a vehicle was traveling north on Linden Boulevard when it struck the child. The report states that the driver struck the boy in the mid-block crosswalk on Rockaway Parkway north of Linden Boulevard. The driver fled the scene and the child, who was taken to nearby Brookdale hospital, died from his injuries, police said.
Dangerous Intersection in Brooklyn
Streetsblog reports that the intersection of Linden Boulevard and Rockaway Parkway — which is just south of the site of the crash — is a dangerous intersection. Since January 2022, there have been 368 reported crashes in just a three-block radius of the intersection, injuring 215 people including 29 pedestrians, 11 bicyclists and 175 people inside cars, according to city statistics interpreted by Crash Count.
The specific block where this fatal crash occurred was the site of 36 reported crashes in 2025, injuring two pedestrians and 10 motorists. Since January 2022, there have been 145 reported crashes injuring 88 people total, including 75 people inside cars, evidence of high speed. Rockaway Parkway is assigned by the New York City Department of Transportation as a Vision Zero corridor, which means the agency has marked it as one of the more dangerous streets in Brooklyn.
An automated enforcement camera at the intersection of Linden and Rockaway caught nearly 10 speeding drivers per day in 2025, according to the safety advocacy group, Transportation Alternatives. The group has called on DOT to use its authority under Sammy’s Law to reduce the speed limit at the location, Streetsblog states.
Protecting Your Rights After a Hit-and-Run Crash
A hit-and-run occurs when a driver involved in an auto accident leaves the scene without stopping to provide contact information, assist injured parties or report the incident to law enforcement. Under New York Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 600, leaving the scene of an accident without reporting it can result in misdemeanor or felony charges, depending on the severity of the incident. Drivers are legally obligated to stop immediately, exchange information, and call the police if necessary.
In a hit-and-run collision, the driver and vehicle owner are both responsible parties even if the owner was not driving when the accident occurred. If the driver was on the job and/or operating a company vehicle at the time, his or her employer can also be held liable. When the driver is apprehended in a hit-and-run case, he or she and the owner of the vehicle can be held financially liable for the injuries, damages and losses caused.
Such drivers can be held financially responsible whether or not they are arrested and/or charged. If a hit-and-run driver has injured you, please remember that you can seek compensation through the uninsured motorist clause of your auto insurance policy (even though the driver has not been identified) or through a quasi-state agency if there is no motor vehicle in the victim’s household. You should consult a personal injury lawyer immediately to protect your rights.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
If you or a loved one has been injured in a bicycle accident or pedestrian accident, or if you have lost a loved one in an auto accident caused by a negligent (careless) driver, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. It is in the best interest of injured victims and their families in such cases to contact an experienced personal injury lawyer before contacting the people responsible for the injuries, and definitely before contacting or communicating with any insurance company, or their lawyers, investigators, or adjusters.
Pedestrian accident victims and their families should remember that they can seek compensation for injuries or losses in collisions even if the victim was not walking in a marked crosswalk and even if the driver involved in collision was not charged. Our law firm recovered the full one-million-dollar insurance policy for a girl who was not in the crosswalk when a motor vehicle hit her.
For over 54 years, our skilled accident attorneys have established a proven track record of helping injured victims get fair compensation for their losses. Our law firm recently recovered $5,600,000 for a bicyclist who was hit by a van, and $2,550,000 for another victim of a truck accident, and $3,000,000 for a pedestrian who was hit by a car, and $2,000,000 in a hit-and-run accident, and the full $1,000,000 insurance policy for a pedestrian who was hit by a truck, and $4,625,000 for a driver who was in a car and was hit by a van, and $2,500,000 for a man who fell through an improperly secured hole. We also recovered $1,500,000 for a lady who was hurt by a bus, although there was only a 1 million dollar insurance policy and we got $500,000 above that insurance policy.
We also obtained $295,000 out of a $300,000 insurance policy in compensation for the victim of a bicycle dooring accident (where a car door opens into the path of a bicyclist). One of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases. Also, we got a $1,400,000 verdict in a motorcycle accident.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury, lead poisoning, paraplegia cases and medical malpractice cases including, brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy) and cerebral palsy cases in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com