NYPD officers struck and killed a pedestrian with their squad car while responding to a call. The city has paid out over half a billion in crash settlements, largely involving the police department, in the last decade.

• NYPD officers struck and killed a pedestrian with their squad car on Friday night.
• The city has paid out $653.8 million related to crashes involving city vehicles in the last decade.

A 52-year-old woman was fatally struck by a New York Police Department vehicle on Friday as officers drove their squad car through Queens while responding to a 911 call.

In a statement from the NYPD emailed to Insider, the department stated the crash occurred as officers were responding to a call for another officer in need of assistance. While attempting to pass through an intersection, the officers collided with a car making a left turn, causing the squad car to spin into a bike lane where the pedestrian was standing, striking her.

The woman hit by the NYPD squad car, a Ford Explorer SUV carrying four officers, suffered head trauma and was transported to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she was pronounced deceased, according to the NYPD statement. An investigation is ongoing. The department declined to answer Insider's additional questions about the incident.

New York has an extensive history of accidents involving its fleet of nearly 30,000 city vehicles. According to a city comptroller report released last week, New York has paid out $653.8 million related to crashes involving municipal vehicles over the last decade. Nearly 40% of that amount — $246.8 million in settlements — involved the NYPD.

"The community districts seeing the highest number of crashes caused by city vehicles over the past ten years have poverty and unemployment rates that are higher than the city and borough average," the report noted. "The identified community districts are also predominantly communities of color, where the majority of residents identify as Black or Hispanic."

The payouts, totaling more than half a billion dollars, account for almost 25% of personal injury claims settled by the City. The report did not indicate how many New Yorkers are left injured or killed due to the incidents.

"The epidemic of vehicle crashes is a serious public safety concern to New Yorkers, and unfortunately the City fleet is not an exception," Comptroller Brad Lander said in a statement regarding the report. "But in these cases, when a New Yorker is hit and harmed by a squad car or a garbage truck, it's New York City taxpayers who have to settle the bill."

Representatives for New York Mayor Eric Adams did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.