Cops have arrested the driver who fatally struck a 62-year-old man crossing the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx, officials said Saturday.
Robert Blakney was taken into custody following the crash that occurred at 5 a.m. Friday near E. 233rd St. in Woodlawn, where the highway wends its way through Van Cortlandt Park.
Blakney was busted after authorities learned he didn’t have a valid driver’s license.
His victim was trying to cross the southbound lanes of the expressway when Blakney’s Chevrolet Suburban rammed into him.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
A 62-year-old old man crossing the southbound lanes of the Major Deegan Expressway, just north of the Van Cortlandt Park South exit, was fatally struck by a Chevy Suburban in the southbound lanes in the Bronx on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The man died at the scene. His name was not immediately released.
Blakney was taken to Montefiore Medical Center with minor injuries. It was there that police learned he didn’t have a valid license.
Cops charged him with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
All of Major Deegan’s southbound lanes were shut down for several hours as police conducted an investigation.
Blakney lives in Elmsford, N.Y., about 12 miles from where the crash occurred.
It was one of two fatal accidents that took place in the city within a half hour Friday morning.
About 30 minutes earlier, Carlos Astimbay was traveling west on the Long Island Expressway in Queens near Exit 22B when he struck the center median, cops said.
A moment later, a Kenworth tractor-trailer rear-ended Astimbay’s Toyota Camry.
EMS rushed Astimbay, 50, to New York Presbyterian-Queens Hospital, where he later died. The driver of the tractor-trailer was also taken to New York Presbyterian with minor injuries.
No charges were immediately filed as cops continue to investigate that crash.
