By Tien-Shun Lee
A 79-year-old accomplished jazz pianist hit a 68-year-old Forest Hills woman with his car on Sunday at around 10:10 a.m. after driving the wrong way down a lane of Queens Boulevard and then attempting to make a U-turn, said a Department of Transportation spokesman.
Ella Ohana of Forest Hills was listed in critical but stable condition in the intensive care unit at Jamaica Hospital on Tuesday, a hospital official said. Driver Gilbert Coggins, who lives in the East Village in Manhattan, suffered a leg injury during the accident and was also in critical but stable condition, the official added.
“He was turning onto Queens Boulevard from Ascan Avenue, and he went into the wrong lane,” said DOT spokesman Tom Cocola. “Then he looks up and sees traffic coming at him. He tried to do a U-turn of some sort and hit the elderly woman and then hit a light pole on the median.”
No arrests or summonses were made, police said.
Cocola said there was a “No turns” sign at the intersection, as well as arrow indicators to indicate the correct lane to turn into.
“In fairness, there's not much you can do in a situation like that,” Cocola said. “This is the kind of accident that just can't be out-engineered.”
Cocola said the accident was the first one he had heard of where somebody had driven in the wrong direction down the boulevard since he began working for the DOT in 2000. Before the accident, Coggins was driving east in the west-bound lane, police said.
Coggins' car, a gray Crown Victoria, was totaled when it smashed into the pole.
“This is a very unfortunate human error. We've sent sympathies to families of both,” Cocola said. “The driver is 79 years old, was apparently disoriented, confused and, frankly, may have been scared.”
There have been 80 pedestrian fatalities on Queens Boulevard, a notoriously dangerous, eight-lane boulevard, also known as the “Boulevard of Death,” since 1993.
Coggins has played jazz piano with renowned musicians Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. He often performed at the C-Note on Avenue C in Manhattan.
Reach reporter Tien-Shun Lee by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com, or call 718-229-0300, ext. 155.
