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Thursday, July 2, 2009 10 Comments

The Weekly Carnage

by Brad Aaron on July 2, 2009

The Weekly Carnage is a Friday round-up (a day early this week due to the holiday) of motor vehicle mayhem across the metro region. For more on the origins and purpose of this column, please read About the Weekly Carnage.

Photo: Newsday

Fatal Crashes (6 Killed This Week, 43 Killed This Year*, 6 Drivers Charged**)

Brooklyn: 72-Year-Old Cyclist Killed on Fifth Avenue; No Charges Filed (News)
Related: Fatality Sparks Call for Further Street Improvements (Bklyn Paper)
RFK-Triborough Bridge: Woman Killed by Lane-Cutting Driver (News)
East Northport, LI: Dump Truck Tips Onto Car, Killing Mother of Two (WPIX, Newsday 1, 2)
Miller Place, LI: Pedestrian Hit by Victim in Infamous Beating Case (Newsday)
Norwalk: Pedestrian Killed on I-95; Investigation Ongoing (CT Post)
Saugerties, NY: Woman Dies in Three-Car Crash (Post)

Photo: Daily News

Injuries, Arrests and Property Damage

Manhattan: Nine Injured When NYPD Officers Crash, Jump Curb (Streetsblog)
Related: Out-of-Control Cruiser Barely Misses Infant, Hits Mother (News)
Queens: Drunk Driver Hits 4-Year-Old With Van (News)
Manhattan: Bike-Lane Blocking Motorist Assaults Cyclist (Cyclosity)
Staten Island: Three-Car Crash in West Brighton (SI Advance)
Jersey City: Hit-and-Run Driver, Caught on Tape, Leaves Ped in Coma (NJ.com)
Weehawken, NJ: Mayor Involved in Crash (NJ.com)
New Cassel, LI: Police Looking for Driver Who Hit 7-Year-Old (Newsday)
Central Islip, LI: Teen Cyclist Critically Injured by Teen Driver; Vehicle Impounded (Newsday)
Copiague, LI: Unlicensed Driver Hits U-Turning Mom; Two Kids Seriously Hurt (Newsday)
Carle Place, LI: Children Injured in School Bus Collision (Newsday)
North Babylon, LI: Jeep Hits Harley; Motorcyclist and Passenger Hospitalized (Newsday)
Haverstraw, NY: Hit-and-Run Driver Injures Ped, Wanted by Police (LoHud)

Following Up

Alpine, NJ: Driver Who Killed Cyclist Camille Savoy Cleared of All Charges (Benepe's BB)
Riverhead, LI: Woman Sentenced to 1-3 Years for Running Over Boyfriend (Newsday)
Hartford: Mother and Son Get Probation for Dump Truck Deaths (Newsday)
Bridgeport: Man Wanted in Fatal February Crash Surrenders to Police (CT Post)
Yorktown, NY: Man Pleads Guilty to Road Rage Incident Preceding Fatal Wreck (LoHud)
Millstone, NJ: NBA Player J.R. Smith Due in Court for Fatal 2007 Crash (NJ.com)

Photo via Newsday

Out of Town

Miami, OK: 10 Dead After Tractor-Trailer Plows Into Stopped Cars on I-44 (Newsday)
Los Angeles: Father Killed, Son Injured on LA Wheelmen Tour (SoapBoxLA)
Atlanta: Midtown Parking Garage Collapses; No Injuries Reported (Newsday)
Related: Construction Company Has History of Problems, Still Building (Red and Black)
Buffalo: Serial Drunk Driver Gets 3-9 Years for Ped Fatality (Newsday)
Kansas City, MO: Former NFL Player Rich Baldinger Won't Be Charged in Fatal Crash (WIBW)
Miami, FL: Judge to Rule on Release of Dante' Stallworth Ped Death Footage (Newsday)

Trends

Philadelphia: Amish Buggy Crash Latest Case for Vulnerable User Law (BCGP)
CT Post Questions Law to Protect First Responders From Speeding Drivers
Boiceville, NY: Shot Glasses Given as Prom Favors (Daily Freeman)
Are Bankrupt Carmakers Still Accountable for Faulty Products? (Wheels)

* Since the week of June 8
** Drivers charged for deaths since the week of June 8, based on latest available reports

10 Comments

Last comment by gecko Leave a comment »

vnm

Carnage is so routine in our society that sometimes it's not worth more than a couple of paragraphs in one paper and no coverage at all in others. The July 1 print edition of the Daily News carried a "NY Minute" two paragraph news brief about a 19-year-old driver in a 2003 Infinity being charged after he killed a 45-year-old man in Borough Park, Brooklyn, at 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30. Does anybody know anything else about this one?

July 2, 2009 at 1:59 pm Link # 1
J-Uptown

What you say is true, unless the carnage is uncommon or occurs on a large scale all at once. As a point of comparison:

2,974 people were killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
45,800 people in the U.S. were killed in automobile collisions in 2005.

The responses to the two tragedies couldn't be more different.

July 2, 2009 at 5:23 pm Link # 2
vnm

Well, yes. If I had a chance to write that comment over again, I would start it: "Motor vehicle carnage is so common . . . "

July 2, 2009 at 7:06 pm Link # 3
Eric McClure

It sure seems like professional athletes are involved in automobile-related fatalities at a rate waaaaay disproportionate to their population, doesn't it?

@vnm, whomever coined carnage, presumably well before the automobile, did so with incredible foresight -- no need to rewrite your comment.

July 3, 2009 at 10:06 am Link # 4
Ian Turner

Eric,

At least part, and maybe all, of the phenomenon involving professional atheletes and car crashes can be attributed to reporting bias. Deadly accidents happen so often they are usually not noteworthy, but when a celebrity is involved, that changes.

Cheers,

--Ian

July 3, 2009 at 4:29 pm Link # 5
gecko

"The Weekly Carnage" is a very effective wakeup call to the horrific ongoing structural violence of transportation systems based on automobiles, though it just touches the surface when the broader domestic and global short and long-term issues are considered.

July 4, 2009 at 10:15 am Link # 6
Chris Grayson

vnm writes:
"Carnage is so routine in our society that sometimes it's not worth more than a couple of paragraphs in one paper and no coverage at all in others..."

All loss of life is sad and tragic, but factually, your statement couldn't be further from the truth.

Carnage is not common in our society at all. As a statistical fact, we live in the most peaceful place and time with the least suffering in the entire history of human civilization.

In the past, so many people died brutal death and it merited zero coverage by anyone anywhere, and if it happened even 10 or 20 miles from where you lived, you were not likely to ever learn about it at all because the modern communication infrastructure that we have today did not exist.

Steven Pinker gave an excellent lecture about this at TED in March of 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/myth-of-violence

I highly recommend it.

Best regards,
Chris

July 5, 2009 at 11:17 pm Link # 7
gecko

#7 Chris Grayson, "Carnage is not common in our society at all. As a statistical fact, we live in the most peaceful place and time with the least suffering in the entire history of human civilization."

Yes this is true but, and even more no reason to allow the carnage caused by our machines to persist as it results from our own actions and is tragically completely preventable.

July 6, 2009 at 4:42 am Link # 8
gecko

#7 Chris Grayson (continued), Survival is profoundly intrinsic to tne nature of living things where self-organizing processes provide continual improvement and intelligence is the great amplifying agent providing near-instant adaptation toward positive change.

To deny this with passivity and no action makes no sense.

July 6, 2009 at 5:20 am Link # 9
gecko

Not reporting critical information important for life is a serious breach in the main purpose of our communications systems.

July 6, 2009 at 5:43 am Link # 10

The Weekly Carnage

10 Comments

vnm

J-Uptown

vnm

Ian Turner

gecko

gecko

gecko

gecko

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