Hard-working Queens woman on way home from hospital job fatally struck in crosswalk 4%
By Nicholas Williams58% Leonard Greene72%
6/22/2026, 2:00:49 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 20 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Framing Effect, and Anecdotal, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 9.8% saturation with 57 hits. Analysis detected 429 faulty-reasoning hits from 583 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 16.9% and a BS Rank of 4% (21,155 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 96.70% of the article peer group.
When Jihang Ortega failed to return home after her 13-hour shift at Flushing Hospital in Queens, her roommate was asleep and unaware.
But coworkers of Ortega, 55, had the habit of calling her to make sure she got home safely.
When she didn’t pick up they kept calling.
A doctor at Elmhurst Hospital finally answered — and they learned Ortega had been struck by a Chevrolet Malibu less than two blocks away from her Astoria home about 9:05 p.m.
June 14.
“She was crossing the street, not even a football field away from home,” said Victoria Gordon, 74, the victim’s longtime friend and roommate.
“One of her friends would make sure she got home safe and would call … So they called and they didn’t get an answer.
They kept calling and so the doctor answered.”
Gordon was asleep at the time of the crash and didn’t learn something was wrong until another friend came by.
Ortega was crossing 38th St. in the crosswalk at 34th Ave. when she was struck by the southbound driver.
Medics rushed her to Elmhurst Hospital.
“When we got to the hospital, the nurse told me she was already gone,” said Gordon, a retired nurse.
“I didn’t believe it!”
Not even Gordon’s years as a nurse prepared her for what she saw.
“I’ve seen bodies before,” she said.
“Mangled bodies are different.
Her face was, like, huge, really huge.”
The 58-year-old woman behind the wheel of the Malibu remained at the scene and was not charged with a crime.
The crash remains under investigation.
Gordon said Ortega, a dialysis specialist, was a dog lover who sent money home to her family in Korea.
“She grew up in Korea.
She came here to finish her nursing education,” Gordon said.
“She was trying to get her PhD in critical health.
She was doing a long Sunday shift, a long 13-hour shift.
She was working six days a week,”
Gordon worked with Ortega at a Manhattan health care clinic before rooming with her in Astoria.
“I am her family,” Gordon said.
“I lived with her for the last 18 years.
We used to go to different Broadway plays together.
We went to see Alvin Ailey.
We went to a lot of different places.
We even traveled together.
We went to Jamaica, Mexico, Nassau,”
She said Ortega had some trouble adjusting to life in the U.S.
“The Korean culture is so different,” Gordon said.
“She let me know that her parents didn't hug or kiss her.
My kids come in the door and they are all over me, She didn't get that kind of affection.
It's a different upbringing.
It was kind of a culture shock for her that we were so warm.
But she liked it.”
Ortega felt plenty comfortable showing affection to her beloved pet, Brady, a Chihuahua mix.
“She loved Brady to death,” Gordon said.
“She was always holding Brady,”
Ortega’s death comes as city officials celebrate a record low level of traffic deaths for pedestrians and occupants of motor vehicles.
Traffic deaths were down 7% over the first three months of this year when compared to the same time last year, officials said.
The 42 traffic deaths in the first quarter of 2026 marked the third-lowest number since such records were first collected in 1910.
In only 2015 and 2018 were fewer traffic deaths recorded at this point, according to city data.
With Rocco Parascandola
Speakers
1speaker48%attributed speech305writer words
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Selected voice
67%flagged-word coverageVictoria Gordon
278 attributed words100% of attributed speech33% writer coverage
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