Police arrested and charged two people in connection with a deadly car crash that took place in a dangerous Brooklyn intersection on Friday and resulted in the death of Shanti Joyner, 18..
Kashawn Croswell, 25, faces charges for manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and leaving an accident. Police also charged Iesha Joyner, 32, with driving while intoxicated, operating a motor vehicle without insurance, operating an unregistered vehicle, and driving while impaired by alcohol.
“There are just no words – this is yet another preventable tragedy on Atlantic,” Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who represents the district where the crash occurred, told Gothamist. “We finally need to design a safer street to ensure that all of us – who live on Atlantic, who work on Atlantic, who shop on Atlantic, who cross Atlantic – can do so safely.”
This stretch of Atlantic Avenue is – according to Restler – “one of the most dangerous areas in Brooklyn.” Roughly 500 crashes have taken place in the area within the past five years. Friday’s collision occurred at Atlantic Avenue and Court Street, almost five months after another car crash in that same intersection killed 31-year-old Katherine Harris.
Shortly before 3:30 a.m. on Friday, Croswell, who was driving a Mercedes Benz, ran a red light and struck the Honda Accord Iesha and Shanti Joyner were riding in. The Honda spun and struck a tree while the Benz caught on fire. Croswell reportedly fled the scene before being apprehended by the police not too far from where the crash occurred.
Following this most recent incident, Restler said he and other officials are continuing to put pressure on the Department of Transportation to respond. He added that more than 1,000 residents signed a petition in April demanding that the transportation department enact more safety precautions in the busy intersection.
“We cannot let another death happen in vain, we’ve got to make Atlantic safe now,” Restler said.
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