A pedestrian was struck by a sport utility vehicle on a street in Corona, Queens, on Wednesday morning, then immediately struck again by a cargo van that dragged the victim 17 miles through a web of city highways and to Coney Island in Brooklyn, the police said. The pedestrian, apparently a male, was killed.

The victim had not yet been identified, though some paperwork was found in the clothing on his body, which was wedged under the van’s chassis, the police said. The authorities said there did not appear to be any criminality involved.

A cadre of uniformed police officers was retracing the van’s route, searching for pieces of the victim’s remains, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said.

The chain of events began at 6 a.m. in the vicinity of 51st Avenue and 108th Street in Corona, and ended about an hour later at Neptune Avenue and Brighton 10th Terrace in Coney Island, the police said.

Police investigators said the driver who struck the pedestrian stopped immediately and dialed 911. But officers who went to the scene did not find a body.

The driver of the second vehicle — the red cargo van — later told the police that he saw vehicles in traffic ahead of him swerving, and that he believed they were trying to avoid a pothole. It is likely they were trying to steer around the accident or around the victim lying in the road, the police said.

The second driver later told investigators that he kept driving, but that he stopped at some point to check his vehicle because something seemed to be wrong with it.

“He apparently felt something,” Mr. Kelly said. “The car was not driving in a normal fashion.”

Seeing nothing unusual, however, the driver continued on his journey. He drove along the Grand Central Parkway, then headed south on the Van Wyck Expressway and then west on the Belt Parkway.

When he exited in Brooklyn, others began flagging him down to tell him he was dragging something.

Witnesses who saw the red cargo van parked in Coney Island said they saw the body under it.

A spokesperson for Misaskim told YWN that their services were not required.

(NY Times Blog / YWN Desk – NYC)