Residents want changes to dangerous intersection in Long Island City after boy hit by Access-a-Ride bus

LONG ISLAND CITY, Queens (WABC) -- There is frightening new video of an accident at a most unsafe intersection in Queens.

A young boy was hit by an Access-a-Ride bus at an intersection that residents have been complaining about for years in Long Island City.

"It's a dangerous intersection here. She comes out of our restaurant here and she plays with her friends and we worry," said Dominic Stiller, Dutch Kills resident.

Parents are holding the hands of their children a little tighter and with good reason.

Surveillance video shows a little boy trying to cross 29th Street. He cautiously stepped off the corner, and then made absolutely sure there's time to cross. But then, he was suddenly blindsided by an Access-a-Ride minibus.

He was apparently struck by the driver's side mirror, and staggered to the sidewalk in a daze. Residents say he was later treated for minor injuries, but the shocking close-call left residents there badly shaken.

"It's getting more dangerous all the time, because there are more and more people living here," said Jimmy Van Bramer, a Long Island City Council Member. "And it is a disaster waiting to happen unless the DOT steps in."

Residents have pleaded with the city's Department of Transportation for more than three years. They have been holding rallies and demanding the intersection at 29th Street and 39th Avenue be made a four-way stop.

"Unfortunately, nothing was ever done...nothing," said Thea Romano, of the Dutch Kills Civic Association.

But it's hard to imagine how more stop signs would help in a neighborhood where they are routinely ignored.

Residents gave Eyewitness News more car crash surveillance video than we could include in this segment aired. But other incidents have happened in the same intersection where the little boy was struck.

"We are denied studies, we request studies, because of the development and unfortunately it's going to take a fatality and we don't want that for our residents," Romano said.

But the DOT is apparently reconsidering.

"While this location did not meet the criteria for an all-way stop, we are exploring other options," a DOT spokesperson said in a statement, "including day-lighting corners to increase visibility, refurbishing street markings and determining the feasibility of speed humps."