Main Street and 41st Road in Flushing (Google Maps)
Jan. 16, 2020 By Allie Griffin
A 67-year-old woman was struck and killed by a sheet of plywood that fell from a Flushing building this morning.
Xiang Ji, of Westbury, NY, was walking eastbound on Main Street near 41st Road at around 9:44 a.m. when a piece of plywood flew off a building at 41-28 Main St. and struck her, police said.
When officers arrived at the scene, they found Ji unconscious and unresponsive on the sidewalk, police said.
EMS rushed Ji to New York Presbyterian Hospital/Queens where she was pronounced dead.
The property is owned by Ian Cheng, of Kam Kee Realty, and there were several outstanding building violations at the time of the incident– with a stop work order already in effect, according to city records.
“Currently, a Stop Work Order exists on the property due to several outstanding violations, and I have called for the city to shut down the building until there is a greater understanding of this building’s safety and scaffolding is in place,” Council Member Peter Koo said.
Building owners must ensure their building facades are safe, the Council Member added.
“Such a horrific tragedy should never happen to anyone who is simply walking down the sidewalk, and it is a clear example of why building owners and city agencies need to ensure building facades are safe, especially during periods of high winds.”
The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory today and encouraged people to secure outdoor objects. Winds blew 20 to 30 miles per hour, with gusts up to 50 miles per hour today, according to NWS.
Koo sent his condolences to Ji’s family.
“My heart goes out to the family and friends of the woman who was struck by falling debris today in Flushing,”
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4 Comments
Where are the Asian especially Chinese elected officials? Why they are silent on the problems happening in Flushing? The poor woman was killed by a reckless Chinese businessman. This kind of accident will happen again.
How can she be unconscious but responsive, yet dead???
When I moved to Flushing, I saw this mall being built and it was beautiful. Nice booths with merchandise of all kinds. Nice white walls. This mall isn’t more than 25-30 years old. However, through the years, slowly they started adding canopies, signs and changed the face of the building. As it looks like now. The street is overcrowded and dirty and the quality of the merchandise has cheapened. Many years ago, Peter Koo came to my children’s school and state “He was ashamed how the neighborhood was changing!” This is the result. The city has to come into Flushing, and clean it up. Fine the store fronts that are dirty. Fine the restaurants that don’t throw their garbage out correctly. And hold the owners of these real estates responsible for the mess they are creating. This isn’t the only building. Roosevelt Ave in Flushing is heading in the same direction. I see many canopies and signs have been removed but many are still there and dirty and dangling.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s become so disgusting.