The family of a teen who was critically injured when he was struck by a car in Valley Stream is pleading for safety improvements to the roadway.

Mohamed Zaman Tarek, 14, was struck while he was crossing Central Avenue back on Dec. 3. The ninth-grader was walking home from a school basketball game and was just a few hundred feet from his home when he was hit.

Tarek's father says there's no place to safely walk on Central Avenue. There's two-way traffic, entrance and exit ramps for the Southern State Parkway, and a large intersection in the area. There's also an elementary school and a mosque in the area, and the road typically sees a lot of foot traffic.

Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages is calling on the state Department of Transportation to do a comprehensive traffic study on the area. "Let's get the resources we need to nip this in the bud and develop this area, and make it safer," says Solages.

Meanwhile, the teen is still in the hospital after suffering a severe brain injury in the crash. His father says he has had six brain surgeries, but doctors say they can't be sure if the teen will ever fully recover.

News 12 attempted to contact the state DOT for comment, but its offices were closed for Presidents Day.