Tragic Scooter Accident Highlights NYC’s Persistent Pothole Problem

A scooter rider lost his life this week on a perilous Queens street notorious for its hazardous potholes, an issue that residents have been voicing concerns about for years, The Post has discovered.

Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park, riddled with treacherous craters, has been the subject of hundreds of 311 complaints since 2020. This year alone, the problematic stretch has already sparked a dozen grievances, according to city records.

On Monday evening, tragedy struck when a 46-year-old man was thrown from his standing electric scooter after encountering a pothole near 106th Street while traveling east, as reported by the police.

Authorities responded to a 911 alert about an unconscious individual on the road around 9:30 p.m., finding the victim with “severe head trauma” upon their arrival, the NYPD shared.

The man’s name has not been released as officials await family notification. He was transported to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Following the tragic incident, the city’s Department of Transportation promptly addressed the situation by performing immediate repairs on the affected roadway, police said.

But the city has received a whopping 557 pothole reports along Liberty Avenue in the last six years, according to a Post analysis of city records.

At least a dozen 311 calls regarding potholes on the 8-mile throughfare have been logged in 2026 so far, the records show. Those complaints, made between Jan. 1 and March 6, were all marked as resolved.

A DOT spokesperson said no prior pothole complaints had been made regarding the part of Liberty Avenue where the crash took place in “recent years.”

“This is a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts are with the victim of this crash and his family,” the spokesperson told The Post in a statement.

“The high volumes of snowfall, salt and use of tire chains all contribute to wear and tear on our roads and we expect a high number of potholes this season,” the rep said.

“We typically see more potholes form in the spring, following the winter and cycle of freezing and thawing conditions, and NYC DOT is taking action to make our roads smooth.”

An investigation from the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad remains ongoing, police said.

Nearly 14,400 pothole reports have been logged in the Big Apple so far in 2026 — the highest level in years — with more than half of the complaints coming from Queens, The Post exclusively reported this week.

The spike marked a 59% jump in reports from this time last year.

More than 45,100 potholes have been filled by the agency this year, the DOT pointed out, adding it fills the craters within two days on average.

But a Post analysis of 311 complaints found more than a quarter of complaints made so far in 2026 were still marked “open,” “pending” or “in progress” as of earlier this week.

“NYC DOT has crews working around the clock across the five boroughs to fill potholes and make emergency roadway repairs — with more than 10,000 potholes filled in just the last week alone,” an agency rep said, “and plans to resurface more than 1,100 lane miles this year.”