While many were surprised to hear about the man struck down and killed by a bus near the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Avenue U Friday, the news left some wondering just one thing: what's the city going to do to prevent this dangerous corner from killing again?

"[That corner] is a disaster area," said Dorothy Turano, district manager of Community Board 18. "It's an accident waiting to happen and that's just what we saw Friday."

Turano is referring to the death of 43-year-old Jack Kelly.

The Powell Street resident was struck by an MTA bus and killed at 2 p.m. on September 1, said officials.

Witnesses told investigators that Kelly did what most pedestrians are forced to do while crossing the six-lane span he made it halfway to the median between northbound and southbound traffic.

Kelly reportedly stepped into a southbound lane in an attempt to sprint across the other side when a bus slammed into him.

Officials determined that the bus was traveling westbound from Avenue U and was in the process of making a left-hand turn onto Flatbush Avenue when it hit the pedestrian, killing the man instantly.

The driver remained at the scene.

After a brief investigation, cops declared the entire incident an accident.

But elected officials and transportation advocates claim that the accident was inevitable.

Transportation Alternatives, a pedestrian advocacy group, determined the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Avenue U to be one of the "Top 10 Most Dangerous Locations for Brooklyn Pedestrians."

Their findings, compiled from pedestrian fatality and injury reports filed between 1995 and 2001, show that there were 38 pedestrian injuries at the corner. No fatalities were investigated during those years.

Flatbush Avenue and Avenue U landed a number seven spot, considered less dangerous than the corner of Church Avenue and Flatbush Avenue, Eastern Parkway and Nostrand Avenue, and Atlantic Avenue and Nostrand Avenue.

The corner of Utica Avenue and Eastern Parkway was named the most dangerous, with four pedestrian fatalities and 88 pedestrian injuries during those six years, according to the study.

Flatbush and U was deemed more dangerous than Flatlands Avenue and Rockaway Parkway in nearby Canarsie, Utica Avenue and Church Avenue and Gold Street and the Flatbush Avenue Extension in downtown Brooklyn.

Residents and civic leaders said that before Friday there hadn't been a fatal accident at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Avenue U in many years.

Calls to the 63rd Precinct for information about the number of accidents that took place at the corner this year were not returned as this paper went to press.

"The unfortunate incident that took place at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Avenue U puts a spotlight on the deficiencies of that problem plagued intersection," said State Senator Carl Kruger, a longtime advocate for improving traffic conditions at the intersection, which is to many the only way to get to their homes in Mill Island and Bergen Beach. "It's one of the worst intersections in the city of New York and some scatter-brained idiot thought that the best way to handle the problem is to expand the islands."

"Now you need a trolley car to get across Flatbush Avenue," said Kruger, who at one time suggested fencing off the corners on the Kings Plaza side of the intersection, forcing pedestrians to cross Avenue U, which is less dangerous.

His plan, however, fell on deaf ears.

Other plans to improve pedestrian safety also included building a pedestrian walkway above Flatbush Avenue, but that too was shot down, advocates said.

"Instead, [the city] spend money and do studies and come out with some outer-space theories that don't work," Kruger said.

Residents said that the Department of Transportation (DOT) did some work on the Kings Plaza side of Flatbush Avenue, but their traffic-calming measures were designed to streamline bus traffic loading and unloading at the mall. The new additions do little to improve pedestrian safety, critics said.

Calls to the DOT for comment were not returned as this paper went to press.

Kruger believes that widening Flatbush Avenue and cracking down on jaywalking would alleviate some concerns.

"There are things you can do with some money, ingenuity and willingness to improve the situation," Kruger said.

Until that is done, many fear that the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Avenue U will be as dangerous to the pedestrian as it has always been.

"It's almost impossible to cross that street. You can't even cross it in two lights," said Turano. "[The city] says that overpasses are too costly, but I guess our lives aren't expensive at all."

When you cross Flatbush Avenue at Avenue U as you go to and from Kings Plaza, you are taking your life in your hands, Turano believes.

"If you're young and agile, you're fine," she said. "If you're older, you're better off going to the Green Acres Mall," she said.