A 76-year-old woman in New York City was killed Sunday by a 7-foot solar panel that came loose because of strong winds as a powerful nor’easter battered the East Coast.
At around 10:30 a.m. ET, a woman was found unresponsive on a walkway in the Coney Island area of Brooklyn, New York police said Monday.
Authorities determined that a solar panel struck the pedestrian in the head. She was taken to Lutheran Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
On Sunday afternoon, city Buildings Department inspectors were called to the scene to investigate “reports of a partial collapse of a solar panel installation at an outdoor parking lot,” the Buildings Department told NBC News on Monday.
“Our inspectors observed that a 41” x 87” solar panel had become disconnected from the steel carport structure which is standing overhead the outdoor parking lot,” it said.
“The detached panel was taken by the wind and blown approximately 20 feet away where it fatally struck a pedestrian at an adjacent walkway.”
The woman was struck near one of the entrances to the aboveground Ocean Parkway subway station for the Q train. The Buildings Department coordinated with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to close that entrance as concerns about strong winds are ongoing.
The incident occurred after the National Weather Service issued warnings and advisories of strong winds and coastal flooding throughout the Northeast in anticipation of the nor’easter.
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