Scooter rider dies after Liberty Avenue pothole crash
At 9:29 p.m. on March 9, 2026, Jaikarran Seenarian, 46, died after he rode an electric stand-up scooter east on Liberty Avenue near 109th Street in Queens and hit a pothole, according to city crash data and police accounts reported by the Daily News.
What We Know
Jaikarran Seenarian, 46, was riding an electric stand-up scooter east on Liberty Avenue near 109th Street at about 9:30 p.m. on March 9, 2026, when he hit a pothole and was thrown to the pavement, according to police accounts reported by the Daily News and ABC7. City crash data records one death at Liberty Avenue and 109th Street and lists defective pavement as a contributing factor. News reports disagree on whether Seenarian died at the scene or was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital. City crews repaired the roadway after the crash, and Mayor Mamdani later announced a citywide pothole repair blitz.
A late-night ride ended at a damaged section of Liberty Avenue
City crash data places the fatal crash at Liberty Avenue and 109th Street at 9:29 p.m. and records defective pavement as a contributing factor. The official record identifies the person killed as a 46-year-old male driver of a stand-up scooter traveling east and going straight ahead.
Police accounts reported by the Daily News and ABC7 said the rider hit a pothole, was thrown from the scooter and suffered a fatal head injury. A later Daily News report identified him as Jaikarran Seenarian.
The crash was reported near the elevated tracks in Queens
The official crash record lists Liberty Avenue at 109th Street. Daily News reports described the site as Liberty Avenue near 109th Street in Richmond Hill, under the elevated subway tracks; ABC7 and NBC New York described the area as Ozone Park. Yahoo reported Liberty Avenue near 106th Street, a location detail that differs from the official record and other accounts.
NBC New York reported that neighbors described potholes as a persistent problem along that stretch of Liberty Avenue, while DOT said it had not received formal pothole complaints for that section for years.
Witnesses and neighbors described the immediate aftermath
Restaurant worker Orvena Persaud told the Daily News that Seenarian had just left the New Chinese Garden of Guyana on Liberty Avenue before the crash. She said people rushed outside after a customer saw him lying in the road.
NBC New York quoted Ann Murak, who said she saw the rider face down in the roadway with the scooter a few feet away, and Monica Sanchez, who said Liberty Avenue had many potholes.
Crews repaired the street, then City Hall ordered a broader pothole blitz
Multiple reports said DOT crews filled or repaired the pothole after police investigated. ABC7 reported that friends and family built a memorial near the site and lit candles for the man who died.
Four days after the crash, Mayor Mamdani announced that more than 80 DOT crews would begin a citywide pothole blitz. DOT said crews had filled more than 10,000 potholes in the prior week and more than 45,000 so far in 2026.