Streetsblog New York City

Quick, what aspect of police work and law enforcement were mayoral contenders addressing when they said the following at Friday’s candidate forum?

• Bill de Blasio: “It’s hard to report crimes and get the kind of response that you deserve…The police need more training to treat these crimes with urgency…Police need better training and we need to strengthen the laws.”
• Christine Quinn: “If we see any situation where police or DA’s are not taking those crimes seriously, we need to take action no matter what elected position we are in.”

Were they talking about traffic violence and NYPD’s lackluster crash investigations? Nope, they were responding to questions about assault against bus operators and harassment and crime against bus and subway passengers.

Safety on the transit system is important, but so is safety on the streets. And so far the candidates haven’t approached the NYPD’s failures on traffic violence with the same fervor they displayed Friday evening for tackling transit crime.

Tom Allon called for “GropeStat” to pinpoint problem harassment locations. “If there’s somebody who’s a serial offender, the DA’s office should take away his MetroCard. Ban him from the subway, ban him from the bus forever,” he said.

Streetsblog followed up with Allon after the forum to ask if this banned-for-life standard should apply to deadly drivers. “There should be a zero-tolerance policy. We have to crack down on people who are a menace to other people,” he said. “It’s one of those crimes that doesn’t get enough attention.”

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Luck, not law enforcement, is practically all that protects NYC pedestrians from reckless drivers. Photo: Post

Two pedestrians have been killed by curb-jumping drivers since Friday in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

On Friday evening at approximately 5:40, Martha Atwater was struck by the driver of a Honda truck after she stepped out of Bagel Cafe at the corner of Clinton Street and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn Heights. The unidentified motorist was traveling north on Clinton Street when he “lost control” of the vehicle, mounted the sidewalk, and pinned Atwater against the building, according to reports. From the Post:

“She just came in to buy cookies. She looked happy, she was smiling,” said the cafe manager, Alauddin Shipun.

“She walked out. I heard a big bang and she was gone. Someone was trying to lift her head up and asking her, ‘Are you OK? Are you OK?’”

The 53-year-old driver may have lost consciousness because of diabetes, a police source said.

He remained at the scene and has not been charged.

An ABC report says Atwater was conscious while pinned underneath the vehicle, and that a UPS man called her family from her cell phone. She was pronounced dead at Long Island College Hospital.

Atwater, 48, was an Emmy-winning writer and producer of children’s television shows. She was married and had two young daughters. ”The problem I have now is that I have two children,” said her husband, Tom Wallack. “One is 12 and the other is 16. They need support.”

Sunday morning at around 1:50 a collision between a cab driver and another motorist sent the cab onto the curb on Third Avenue at E. 27th Street in Kips Bay, fatally striking a woman as she stood on the sidewalk. From the Post:

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Christine Quinn remains noncommittal on whether NYPD should investigate maimings and killings on NYC streets. Photo: James Estrin/New York Times/Redux

It was a year ago today that the City Council transportation committee, led by James Vacca and Peter Vallone Jr., convened a hearing on pedestrian and cyclist safety and the failure of NYPD to properly investigate traffic crashes.

“Driving in our city is a privilege, not a right,” said Vacca, to a room packed with victims of vehicular violence and their loved ones, safe streets advocates, and media. Of dangerous drivers, Vacca said: “I want to know what the police department is doing to track down these scofflaws. We have to bring these people to their senses. We don’t accept gun violence as a way to die. We shouldn’t accept traffic deaths as a way to die either.”

Vacca and Vallone listened sympathetically to hours of testimony from those whose lives were forever altered by traffic crashes, and whose misery was often compounded by an inept and indifferent NYPD. Council members learned that the department has just 19 officers assigned to its Accident Investigation Squad, and that no one else on the force has the authority to charge a motorist with careless driving, much less a serious crime, unless the officer witnesses a violation.

“There will be laws arising out of this,” said Vallone, who grilled NYPD brass alongside Jessica Lappin, Gale Brewer, Dan Garodnick, Steve Levin, Letitia James, Brad Lander, Dan Halloran, and Vincent Ignizio.

Five months later, council members introduced the Crash Investigation Reform Act. Among its provisions was the formation of a multi-agency task force charged with reforming NYPD crash investigation protocols, which allow thousands of serious injuries to go uninvestigated every year, in violation of state law.

Since last July, the Crash Investigation Reform Act has gone nowhere. Vallone has pretty much been a no-show on matters of street safety, while Vacca spent the rest of the year targeting delivery cyclists and working to make it easier for motorists to park.

Speaker Christine Quinn, whose imprimatur is essential to moving legislation through the council, has not taken a position on NYPD crash investigation reforms.

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Jefferson Avenue at Mason Avenue, where a motorist making a left turn struck a Staten Island couple Friday evening, killing one. Image: Google Maps

A motorist who killed an elderly man and injured his wife on Staten Island has been cleared of responsibility by NYPD.

Bujar Hasimja, 72, and his 64-year-old wife were crossing Jefferson Avenue at Mason Avenue, near their home, at approximately 7:30 p.m. Friday when the driver of a Nissan SUV hit them while making a left turn, according to reports.

The Post reported that Hasimja was declared dead on arrival at Staten Island University Hospital, and his wife, whose name was not released, suffered “minor injuries.”

If the crash occurred as described by police, at the very least the motorist failed to yield. Details such as vehicle speed and whether the driver may have been using a phone or was otherwise distracted are rarely divulged by NYPD.

Within hours of the crash, NYPD issued its boilerplate “No criminality suspected” statement to the press. There is about a 50 percent chance that the driver will not receive so much as a traffic summons for running over two people who had the right of way.

As pedestrians continue be wounded and killed at an alarming rate, their killers unpenalized by NYPD, the City Council continues to focus on delivery cyclists and parking perks.

This fatal crash occurred in the 122nd Precinct. To voice your concerns about neighborhood traffic safety directly to Captain Joseph B. Veneziano, the commanding officer, go to the next precinct community council meeting. The 122nd Precinct council meetings happen at 8 p.m. on the third Wednesday of the month at the precinct, 2320 Hylan Boulevard. Call 718-667-2292 for more information.

The City Council district where Bujar Hasimja was killed is represented by Minority Leader James Oddo, an enemy of bike lanes who has supported neighborhood slow zones while also stating that “drivable roads” for Staten Island motorists are his primary concern. Another pedestrian, Suying Du, was killed by a motorist in Oddo’s district last November. To encourage Oddo to take action to improve street safety in his district and citywide, contact him at 212-788-7159, joddo@council.nyc.gov or @HeyNowJO.

Linden Boulevard at Rockaway Parkway, where pedestrian Gerald Green was killed by a motorist who "had the light." Image: Google Maps

Three pedestrians were killed in separate crashes in Manhattan and Brooklyn last night.

At around 7:50 p.m., 85-year-old Richard Griffin was on his way to visit a hospital patient, according to the Post, when he was apparently struck head-on by the driver of a Jeep SUV on York Avenue at E. 69th Street. Griffin, of Staten Island, was taken to Cornell Medical Center and died soon after.

At approximately 11:30, Gerald Green was hit by the driver of a Jeep SUV while attempting to negotiate the hellish intersection of Linden Boulvard and Rockaway Parkway. Here’s how the crash was described by DNAinfo and the Daily News.

Green, who cops said was crossing against the light, was taken to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center and pronounced dead, police said.

Gerald Green, 52, was hit in East Flatbush as he tried to cross … against the light … cops said.

The Daily News story reported that another pedestrian was killed, in Harlem, some 90 minutes later. According to NYPD, a 35-year-old man was crossing W. 125th Street at Broadway when he was hit by a yellow cab driver at around 1 a.m. He was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt. Police had not released the victim’s identity as of early this afternoon.

No drivers were charged for any of these crashes, despite the fact that there is no indication that the fallen Harlem pedestrian or Richard Griffin were violating any traffic rules. That’s because NYPD tends to cite possible causal factors — who “had the light,” for example — only when they are attributed to the victim, i.e. the dead or wounded pedestrian or cyclist.

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The bus driver who ran over and killed a woman in Canarsie last Friday broke no laws, according to NYPD.

Lorraine and Michael Ferguson. Photo via Daily News

Lorraine Ferguson was crossing at Avenue K and 105th Street at approximately 7:15 a.m. when the driver, operating a private bus carrying disabled adults, struck her while turning left. Michael Ferguson, the victim’s husband, witnessed the crash, and said the driver ran a stop sign before the collision.

Nonetheless, the Daily News reported on Friday that police have all but cleared the driver of responsibility:

He was not expected to be charged, police sources said. Contrary to Michael Ferguson’s assertion that the driver cruised through the stop sign, investigators found no immediate evidence the man had done anything wrong, the sources added.

No one disputes that the actions of the bus driver led to the death of Lorraine Ferguson. But in New York City, a lifeless body underneath a vehicle is not considered sufficient evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the motorist behind the wheel. That such a conclusion could be reached by police, and reported by the media without question, encapsulates the extreme dysfunction of our city and state traffic justice system.

As candidates for mayor and other citywide offices begin to shape their campaign platforms, no one is talking about the thousands of injuries and deaths that occur on city streets every year, or the fact that, in violation of state law, virtually none of them are investigated by Ray Kelly’s NYPD. This life and death issue continues to be ignored by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, two mayoral aspirants who are currently in a position to help make New Yorkers safer from reckless drivers like the one who killed Lorraine Ferguson.

A woman was killed by a bus driver in Brooklyn this morning. Despite an account from the victim’s husband that the driver blew a stop sign, NYPD has already declared that “No criminality is suspected.”

At around 7:15 a.m., Lorraine Ferguson, 48, was crossing at Avenue K and 105th Street in Canarsie to catch the BM2 when the driver of a bus carrying disabled children rounded the corner and ran her over, according to the Post.

The driver of this bus could be another beneficiary of NYPD's casual approach to deadly traffic crashes. Photo: Post

“I saw the woman under the bus. Her head was smashed,” said Tanzania Martin, 22. “She was totally gone. The bus driver never came out. I had to go in and ask, are you okay? He said yes.”

Police say no criminality is suspected and the driver stayed on the scene, but the investigation is ongoing.

“Had he stopped for one second, my wife would still be alive,” [Michael] Ferguson said. “My wife didn’t have a chance.”

“No criminality suspected” is NYPD’s way of saying that the driver was not intoxicated and did not flee the scene — and therefore will almost certainly face no criminal charges, and has a good chance of driving away without as much as a summons for careless driving.

It is almost unheard of for police to file charges against a driver who kills a pedestrian or cyclist unless they do so at the time of the crash. Even a driver who appears to have broken at least two laws — running a stop sign and failing to yield — can expect to be cleared of wrongdoing on the spot.

Like his colleagues in the other four boroughs, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes virtually never charges a killer motorist with a crime unless alcohol or drugs are involved, though exceptions may be made when the perpetrator leaves the scene.

This fatal crash occurred in the 69th Precinct. To voice your concerns about neighborhood traffic safety directly to Deputy Inspector George Fitzgibbon, the commanding officer, go to the next precinct community council meeting. The 69th Precinct council meetings happen at 8 p.m. on the last Tuesday of the month at the precinct, 9720 Foster Avenue, or St. Alban’s Church, 9408 Farragut Road. Call 718-257-6205 for information.

The City Council district where Lorraine Ferguson was killed is represented by Charles Barron, who has been supportive of new car-free space for his constituents. To encourage Barron to take action to improve street safety in his district and citywide, contact him at 212-788-6957, or wake up his Twitter feed @CharlesBarron12.

Sajjad Matin, left, whose left leg was amputated after he was hit by a drunk driver, speaks about his roommate Mir Hossain, who was killed by a speeding driver over the weekend. Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky, right, listens on. Photo: Stephen Miller

Early Sunday morning, Mir Hossain, 35, was standing next to his double-parked cab on East 26th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues when a speeding SUV driver rear-ended his taxi, sending him flying to the pavement and killing him.

This afternoon, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance held a memorial at the site of the crash, joined by, among others, Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky and Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives.

Hossain’s roommate Sajjad Matin, himself a cab driver, fought back tears as he spoke about his friend. Overcome by grief, he left halfway through his remarks. In February 2012, Matin was pinned by a drunk driver on Eighth Avenue near 51st Street as he was unloading a passenger’s luggage from his car’s trunk. His left leg was amputated and he remained in a medically-induced coma for weeks.

Saying that “an injury to one is an injury to all,” transportation analyst Charles Komanoff cited his research in “Killed by Automobile” showing that taxi drivers are some of New York’s safest drivers per mile driven, yet face big risks due to long shifts and time getting into and out of vehicles on the street.

“Our streets can give us better, and if we work together with transit activists, taxi drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists and the city of New York, we believe we can make the streets safer for all of us,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the Taxi Workers Alliance. ”The design of the streets and the allocation of space should be respectful of everybody who needs to use it, including taxi drivers.”

Although she counted herself among the city’s advocates for safer streets today, Desai has a history of MTA-bashing and skepticism of camera enforcement, and told Streetsblog this afternoon that she thought the city already had speed cameras.

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Avenue O, looking east, with E. 7th Street indicated by the marker in the background. Police say Sara Mishik, 15, stepped between parked cars into the path of the driver who killed her, but NYPD also says she was crossing from north to south (left to right) when she was struck. Image: Google Maps

The driver of a Ford van killed a 15-year-old girl in Midwood Tuesday. It was the second crash in which a child has died in city traffic in less than a week, and at least the fourth time a motorist has killed a pedestrian in the course of six days.

Sara Kishik was crossing Avenue O near E. 7th Street, a residential area where homes line both sides of the street, at approximately 2:50 p.m. when she was struck, according to reports. NY1 says the van was a “private ambulette.” A bystander told DNAinfo that Kishik was thrown into the air upon impact.

A witness, who only gave his name as Vinny, 52, said that the girl was crossing midblock when she was struck by the van, catapulting her into the air.

“She went into the air and hit her head on the ground,” he said.

If the witness account is accurate, it’s a sign the driver may have been speeding. In addition, multiple reports indicate the driver was eastbound on Avenue O, and that Kishik was crossing from north to south. If that is the case, she would have been at least halfway across the street when she was hit, having already crossed the westbound lane. It is impossible to imagine an attentive driver traveling at 30 mph or less on a clear afternoon failing to see a 15-year-old crossing the street directly in front of him.

Nevertheless, NYPD immediately assigned blame to the deceased victim. The Daily News says that according to police Kishik “stepped in the road from between two parked cars.” Within hours, NYPD issued its standard “No criminality suspected” statement to the press.

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Maria Beria, Aileen Martinez, Sheena Mathew, Ronald Sinvil, Miguel Torres

In separate crashes in Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx, city motorists killed five pedestrians between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Four of the crashes, which took the lives of a child and three young mothers, were hit-and-runs.

At approximately 8:45 a.m. on December 28, 11-year-old Miguel Torres of Jackson Heights was crossing at Northern Boulevard and 80th Street, in the crosswalk and with the light, when he was hit by the driver of a dump truck.

Miguel was on his way to participate in a school field trip to Grand Central Terminal when he was killed. Olga Gonzalez, who witnessed the aftermath of the crash, told the Post: “It was so bad, when the ambulance guy came, he was crying … The car hit [Miguel] so hard his shoes came off. I just saw a little kid in the middle of the street, and I just started crying.”

The driver, who did not stop, was later located by police. To the dismay of Miguel’s grieving family, no criminal charges were filed. From DNAinfo:

“They’re just giving him summonses,” [Miguel's aunt Yolanda] Ardezzone said. “I think he should get more than summonses — jail time, so this won’t happen to another child.”

A spokeswoman for the NYPD said that although the police originally stated the child was involved in a hit-and-run, police were actually able to track down the driver at the scene.

“It appeared the driver was unaware they struck someone,” said the spokeswoman. No criminal charges had been filed by Sunday, but she said the case was still under investigation.

In New York State, a driver must know or have reason to know that he or she has caused injury in order to be charged for leaving the scene of a fatal crash. Even when police and prosecutors muster the will to bring charges — no sure thing by any means — an admission that the motorist “didn’t see” the victim serves as a reliable defense. From the Daily News:

A few hours after the incident, police found the driver of the 1988 truck in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He told police he didn’t know he had hit someone, tested negative for alcohol and had a valid driver’s license. Police said no criminal charges will be filed.

No charges, though according to the same Daily News story: “A police source said the truck’s rear wheels struck the boy, though a second source said the boy may have first been struck from the front end of the truck.”

If Queens District Attorney Richard Brown does indeed pursue a criminal case against Miguel Torres’s killer, it is a virtual lock that leaving the scene would be the top charge. Minus evidence of intoxication, a city motorist who kills a pedestrian or cyclist is practically guaranteed to escape charges for taking a life.

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