KILLED ON JOB
DOT worker struck by car on Hutch in Bronx
A CITY Department of Transportation worker was struck and killed by a car on the Hutchinson River Parkway in the Bronx Wednesday, police said.
The vehicle hit George Staab, 57, a bridges electrician, on the southbound side of the highway near Rochelle Park at about 10:45 a.m., cops said.
Staab and his partner were doing maintenance on the Hutchinson River Parkway Bridge when the accident occurred, officials said.
The two had pulled over onto the shoulder and got out of their car when Staab was struck by a passing motorist.
The car “eventually landed in an embankment further up the road,” a DOT spokesman said.
Medics rushed the Shirley, L.I., resident to Jacobi Medical Center, where he died, authorities said. Staab’s relatives declined to speak at the hospital. The driver who struck him remained at the scene, and no charges were immediately filed.
Staab had been employed by the DOT since 2014, Mayor de Blasio said. “This is just a sudden and horrible tragedy,” said de Blasio, who plans to visit Staab’s family. “I’m going to be talking with the family and I ask all New Yorkers to keep him and his family in our prayers.”
Police are investigating Staab’s death, but it doesn’t appear to be criminal, authorities said.
Staab was assigned to the DOT’s Bridge Repair Unit, where he updated and repaired spans maintained by the Harlem River Bridge section.
“George was a valuable member of a bridges division that is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of nearly 800 cityowned bridges,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.
“Our thoughts and prayers are of course with George’s wife Tara, their children, and his entire family. Our thoughts are also with our grieving colleagues in bridges, who were stunned today by the loss of a truly beloved colleague.”