Comments on: The Weekly Carnage http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/06/29/the-weekly-carnage-46/ Covering the New York City Streets Renaissance Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:07:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Steve http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/06/29/the-weekly-carnage-46/comment-page-1/#comment-33301 Steve Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:38:47 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/06/29/the-weekly-carnage-46/#comment-33301 SUV Jumps Curb: You can't read this without realizing that driving a motor vehicle in NYC is as dangerous as hunting would be. You've got this dangerous weapon, the car, that you point around in a crowded pedestrian environment looking for a safe path. If you happen to point in the wrong direction, or pull the trigger at the wrong time, someone dies. Is it really all that harder to "accidentally" kill someone with a car in NYC than it is with a gun? Why do we regulate the two so differently? Cyclist, 17, doored: They don't even bother to mention that no charges will be filed, probably because it is inconceivable to the journalist that opening a car door into the path of bicyclist (although against the law) is blameworthy conduct. Bus kills woman: I'm not surprised by the identical repeat deaths. The intersection at 86th and Columbumbus is highly congested and east and westbound motorists on 86th street often pull illegal and dangerous maneuvers while turning south. That intersection shoulld be timed and controlled so that there is a separate phase for left and right turns. Backovers: "more than 1,200 children under 15 who were killed since 2000 in nontraffic motor vehicle accidents in the United States. Half of those fatalities were in backovers, almost all of them involving children under 5, according to Kids and Cars, a child safety advocacy group in Leawood, Kan. Each week, at least two children are killed and another 50 are hurt in backover accidents. Over three days in April, six children were killed; by the end of the month, 11 more died, the group said." Because these backover accidents are not in traffic, they don't even make it into many fatality statistics. SUV Jumps Curb: You can’t read this without realizing that driving a motor vehicle in NYC is as dangerous as hunting would be. You’ve got this dangerous weapon, the car, that you point around in a crowded pedestrian environment looking for a safe path. If you happen to point in the wrong direction, or pull the trigger at the wrong time, someone dies. Is it really all that harder to “accidentally” kill someone with a car in NYC than it is with a gun? Why do we regulate the two so differently?

Cyclist, 17, doored: They don’t even bother to mention that no charges will be filed, probably because it is inconceivable to the journalist that opening a car door into the path of bicyclist (although against the law) is blameworthy conduct.

Bus kills woman: I’m not surprised by the identical repeat deaths. The intersection at 86th and Columbumbus is highly congested and east and westbound motorists on 86th street often pull illegal and dangerous maneuvers while turning south. That intersection shoulld be timed and controlled so that there is a separate phase for left and right turns.

Backovers: “more than 1,200 children under 15 who were killed since 2000 in nontraffic motor vehicle accidents in the United States. Half of those fatalities were in backovers, almost all of them involving children under 5, according to Kids and Cars, a child safety advocacy group in Leawood, Kan.

Each week, at least two children are killed and another 50 are hurt in backover accidents. Over three days in April, six children were killed; by the end of the month, 11 more died, the group said.”

Because these backover accidents are not in traffic, they don’t even make it into many fatality statistics.

]]>