Streetsblog New York City

Speaking at yesterday’s Transportation Alternatives rally at 1 Police Plaza, Erika Lefevre pointed to inconsistencies between initial accounts of the hit-and-run collision that killed her son Mathieu and the version offered by the crash report, which her family obtained only after weeks of NYPD stonewalling.

The case of Mathieu Lefevre is only the latest in which relatives and friends of traffic crime victims are kept in the dark by a police department with a long record of withholding information regarding cyclist and pedestrian deaths. It does, however, afford a detailed look at NYPD incompetence and obfuscation. For example:

• An NYPD officer told Gothamist that the department “had concluded that Lefevre had run a red light at the intersection.” The glaring flaw in that conclusion is that if both Lefevre and driver Leonardo Degianni were traveling in the same direction, and Lefevre ran a light, presumably Degianni could not have struck Lefevre unless he did the same. Regardless, there is no mention in the crash report of either party running a light.
• The prevailing narrative of the crash, which originated with NYPD, is that Lefevre was riding to the right of Degianni’s commercial truck when Degianni turned into him. The diagram on the crash report seems to depict a rear-end collision, and the officer’s notes say Degianni made the turn after the collision.
• NYPD told the Lefevre family that the truck that hit Mathieu was identified through visible damage, but the vehicle damage codes section of the crash report was marked through, with no details documented.
• On October 24, an NYPD spokesperson told Gothamist: “The driver did not know that he hit the cyclist.” The police report, amended on October 30 with Degianni’s identity (which police would not provide to Gothamist or the Lefevre family), includes no explanation of why Degianni left the scene, or what circumstances led him to run over a person on a bicycle without knowing it.
• NYPD told Erika Lefevre that charges had been dropped against the driver, suggesting that charges were filed at some point. This contradicts a statement, also reported by Gothamist on October 24, that no charges were filed, as well as remarks from a department spokesperson who told Metro: “There’s no criminality. That’s why they call it an accident.”

Inexplicably, even as NYPD refused information to the Lefevres, the department was talking to the media. On October 26, a week after her son was killed, Erika Lefevre told reporters, “All we know is what we have read in the papers.” On Wednesday, Lefevre spoke directly to NYPD.

“Today, I am asking NYPD to stop leaking misinformation to the press about crash victims,” she said. “That only hurts victims and their families and makes NYPD appear unprofessional and biased.” Lefevre said that to this point NYPD has not complied with freedom of information requests and has not permitted her family to see video of the crash and other evidence police say they have.

Transportation Alternatives today delivered over 2,500 citizen letters to Ray Kelly demanding that NYPD crack down on dangerous driving, and announced a comprehensive probe into how the department handles traffic crash investigations.

Flanked by dozens of supporters and victims of traffic violence at 1 Police Plaza, TA executive director Paul Steely White excoriated NYPD for what he called a “cavalier attitude” toward lawless driving. While hundreds are killed and thousands are injured by reckless drivers in the city every year, enforcement of traffic laws is relatively rare, and drivers who cause suffering and death are routinely excused by police and prosecutors without as much as a summons.

“It’s the NYPD’s job to keep dangerous driving in check by holding reckless drivers accountable,” said White, “but they are simply not taking that job seriously.”

Calling for a zero tolerance approach to a “public safety crisis,” TA will have attorneys review NYPD reports on recent crashes that resulted in serious injury or death. Evaluations will focus on whether police followed proper post-crash procedure and if victims were “guaranteed a full and fair investigation.”

Erika Lefevre, whose son Mathieu was killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike in East Williamsburg in October, said that her family is still waiting for definitive information about the crash. Initially, police told reporters that Mathieu ran a red light at Morgan Avenue and Meserole Street and was struck by the driver of a flatbed truck making a right-hand turn. The NYPD report, however, indicates that Mathieu was hit from behind, and makes no mention of either Mathieu or the driver running a light.

The report identifies the driver who struck Lefevre as Leonardo Degianni of College Point. Degianni, 48, was driving a truck registered to Imperium Construction of Ridgewood. After hitting and dragging Lefevre, Degianni left the scene. Police found the truck a short distance from the crash site but did not locate Degianni for days. He was not charged.

Erika Lefevre said police have video of the crash along with other evidence, none of which her family has been allowed to see.

Read more…

The family of Mathieu Lefevre, the 30-year-old artist killed by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike in East Williamsburg last week, was joined by dozens of supporters outside 1 Police Plaza today to demand that NYPD rein in deadly driving and end its policy of silence when it comes to fatal traffic crashes.

Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, began the rally by reading from a list of cyclists, pedestrians and drivers killed this year at the hands of motorists who faced no charges of any kind. While drivers continue “killing with impunity on a daily basis,” said White, NYPD has “consistently failed” to take action to stop the violence.

In 2010, White said, 269 people died in New York City traffic. Traffic crashes are the leading cause of preventable death for the city’s children, and from 2000 to 2009 more New Yorkers were killed by cars than guns. Addressing his remarks to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, White said: “You are failing to enforce a basic standard of due care.”

The devastation wrought by the city’s traffic fatality epidemic is made worse by NYPD’s practice of withholding crash information, even from family members of victims. Lefevre’s parents traveled from western Canada immediately upon hearing of their son’s death. Since then, said his mother Erika, they have learned little about the crash.

“All we know is what we have read in the papers,” said Lefevre. Last Friday, the Lefevres waited all day at NYPD headquarters, but were told nothing. No one was available to speak with them over weekend, said Lefevre, and since Monday they have been passed from desk to desk. NYPD revealed to the family that the truck that hit Mathieu, identifiable from visible damage, was found two blocks from the crash site, and that the driver was located through the company that owns the truck. The Lefevres were not given the name of the company or the driver. As for the crash itself, the only details they have been made privy to are time and location. Lefevre said the family was told today that “charges were dropped” against the driver, though she isn’t sure charges were filed in the first place.

Read more…

On Tuesday, 21-year-old Jason King was killed by a truck driver while walking across Madison Avenue in the crosswalk. According to police, the driver overshot his destination, decided to back up, and ran over King in reverse, dragging him 30 feet before coming to a stop. NYPD decided not to charge the driver with anything more serious than a traffic summons.

The Daily News reported yesterday that police said the victim’s iPod may have prevented him from hearing the truck. It’s not clear whether the iPod factored into NYPD’s decision. But the very fact that police issued summonses to the driver indicates that they failed to pursue further options, because there are new laws on the books to suspend the driving privileges of motorists who injure pedestrians and cyclists through recklessness or negligence.

A sponsor of one of those bills, Upper East Side Assembly Member Micah Kellner, wants answers from New York City’s law enforcement agencies. Why aren’t police and prosecutors using the tools at their disposal to help keep pedestrians safe?

Yesterday Kellner sent the following letter to Manhattan DA Cy Vance and NYPD boss Ray Kelly:

Dear District Attorney Vance and Commissioner Kelly:

I am writing to you regarding an incident that occurred early yesterday morning, in which 21-year-old student Jason King was struck and killed by a dump truck that was illegally backing up the wrong way, as he was crossing Madison Avenue near 81^st Street.  I have been informed by the Community Affairs Officer at the 19^th Precinct that the driver of this truck was issued a summons for unsafe backing, but that he was not charged with any crime and no further action has been taken.

As the sponsor of Elle’s Law and a supporter of the Hayley Ng and Diego Martinez Law, I am greatly concerned that neither of these important pedestrian-protection laws has apparently been enforced in this incident.

Read more…

NYC DOT and NYPD jointly announced some new street safety initiatives today. Harking back to the release this summer of DOT’s Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan, Janette Sadik-Khan and Ray Kelly came out with plans to increase awareness about the dangers of speeding and to target more police enforcement on speeding and failure-to-yield violations.

The centerpiece of DOT’s education campaign is a series of PSAs called “That’s Why It’s 30,” which inform New Yorkers about the 30 mph speed limit and why it exists. According to DOT’s pedestrian safety report, most New Yorkers don’t know the citywide speed limit. The video ads repeat this straightforward explanation:

Hit someone at 40, there’s a 70 percent chance they’ll die. Hit someone at 30, there’s an 80 percent chance they’ll live. That’s why it’s 30.

The PSAs will be distributed on TV, radio, and on billboards, but the announcement doesn’t go into detail about the budget for getting them out to the masses. According to the press release, “DOT is also developing a series of public service announcements targeting cyclists ride on the sidewalk, ride against traffic or fail to yield to pedestrians.”

NYPD, meanwhile, has received a $150,000 grant from the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee to direct traffic enforcement resources toward speeding and failure-to-yield. DOT’s safety report had revealed that failure to yield to people in a crosswalk is a factor in 27 percent of motor vehicle crashes that injure or kill pedestrians, and that speeding is a factor in more than 20 percent of such crashes.

Read more…

Have a look at the un-scientific poll nested inside Michael Daly’s excellent Daily News column on speeding enforcement (penned in response to the case of Eric Hakimisefat, the 16-year-old un-licensed driver who killed a passenger after reaching 63 mph on a Midwood street and crashing into a tree). Currently, two-thirds of respondents think that all speeding is wrong.

And yet, out on the streets, nearly 40 percent of motorists are speeding, while enforcement is nearly non-existent. Our police commissioner (by many accounts the most important living New Yorker) responds to calls for speeding enforcement by, essentially, tossing up his hands.

Here’s Daly’s take on the speeding epidemic:

We have had zero tolerance for public drinking and urination. Why not zero tolerance for driving more than 30 mph in the city streets?

Every few days, we witness some new traffic tragedy, and too often we shrug. We were all horrified when we learned that the medical examiner’s office had retained a young car- accident victim’s brain without the family’s consent. The wreck that made him a candidate for an autopsy barely reached public attention.

Often when a motorist or a pedestrian or a bicyclist is killed by a speeder, the culprit escapes even a ticket because velocity after the fact can be hard to establish. Velocity as calculated by the speedometer of a trailing police car or a radar gun is a snap.

Take it from me. I used the speedometer on my wife’s car to catch then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani going 70 mph after he announced a supposed crackdown on speeding back in 1998.

Let’s have a real crackdown now.

Read more…

Sister Mary Celine Graham died for $23 and a Blackberry.

That's what armed thieves are said to have stolen from a young Columbia alum prior to being pulled over by police in Central Harlem, and before one of them sped south on Lenox Avenue in the minivan that soon hit another vehicle and spun into Graham, her aide, and a construction worker Tuesday morning.

Both suspects -- original reports said there were three -- have been caught. The man allegedly behind the wheel of the minivan at the time of the collision, 20-year-old Dyson Williams, has been charged with murder.

Responding to accounts that NYPD was chasing Williams down pedestrian-packed streets at the time of the crash, which also injured two people in another vehicle, Commissioner Ray Kelly claims no departmental rules were broken. The Times reports:

Witnesses said they saw an unmarked police car about a block behind, its lights flashing and its siren blaring.

But the police account, pieced together from radio transmissions and reports, makes clear that responding officers did not have time to give chase, and that the unmarked police car began its pursuit only two blocks before the Chrysler crashed.

"Police cars did go south behind the car, but they were at least a block away," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said. "I wouldn't consider that a close pursuit. I would consider it appropriate police tactics. It was an unfortunate series of events that caused a nun to lose her life."

So for Ray Kelly, and the Times, this case appears to be closed. However, on his Twitter feed yesterday Public Advocate Bill de Blasio indicated that he intends to look into the recent rash of NYPD-involved crashes. A call to de Blasio's office confirmed same.

Even if one accepts the department's version of this latest catastrophe as the final word, it's clear that an examination of NYPD pursuit policy (if not the propensity for drunk driving among off-duty cops) is overdue. Here's hoping that effort bears fruit before more New Yorkers are killed and maimed for nothing.

An elderly woman was killed and at least two other bystanders were injured when suspects fleeing police slammed into another vehicle in Harlem this morning. According to reports from City Room, 1010 WINS and WCBS, officers had pulled over a minivan at Lenox Avenue and W. 141st Street in connection with a gunpoint robbery and were questioning the driver outside the vehicle when a passenger slid into the driver's seat and proceeded south on Lenox Avenue. Police gave chase with lights and sirens. At Lenox and W. 122nd, the minivan driver ran a red light and hit a second minivan and a sanitation truck. The suspect vehicle spun out of control into a crowd of people. Two elderly women standing on a traffic island were hit. Both were transported to area hospitals in critical condition. One later died. A cyclist was also reported hurt, as were two people in the minivans. The NYPD Patrol Guide states: "Department policy requires that a vehicle pursuit be terminated whenever the risks to uniformed members of the service and the public outweigh the danger to the community if [the] suspect is not immediately apprehended." Yet today's incident is only the latest in recent memory in which a known or reported NYPD chase has ended with horrific collateral damage.

• In January Karen Schmeer was mowed down by men suspected to have stolen over-the-counter allergy medicine from a CVS pharmacy in Manhattan.
• Last August, 27-year-old restaurant worker and father of three Pablo Pasares was run over in Long Island City by a man after an alleged drug buy.
• According to witnesses, a car thief was fleeing police when he hit and killed 38-year-old Greenpoint mother Violetta Kryzak in April 2009.
• In February 2009, a video camera captured an apparent Staten Island chase that led to the death of a couple with young sons.
• Last July, a pedestrian and motorcyclist were struck by a man fleeing the NYPD in Washington Heights following an armed mugging.
• One year ago this month, nine people, including five pedestrians, were injured when officers responding to a call in a marked NYPD squad car collided with another car and careened onto an East Village sidewalk.

That's five dead and about a dozen injured in the last year-and-a-half, not counting numerous incidents of off-duty officers involved in deadly and near-deadly crashes. Yet Commissioner Ray Kelly has had nothing to say on the subject. If recent experience holds, he won't face pressure from the press to account for his department's role in killing, maiming and endangering innocent New Yorkers.

The Post ran a damning article last weekend on reckless yellow cab drivers. Armed with a radar gun, a reporter clocked cabbies regularly exceeding the city's 30 mph speed limit by as much as 20 mph. An unnamed NYPD commander also said that cab drivers are responsible for over half of all crashes in Midtown.

If only that were the whole story. A 2009 Transportation Alternatives study found that 39 percent of motorists speed through the city, heedless of school zones and other areas with heavy pedestrian traffic.

Another nugget buried in the Post piece:

Cops issued 18.3 million such tickets [for moving violations] in the Big Apple last year, down from 24.3 million in 2008, records show.

Speeding tickets are a small fraction of total moving violations issued in New York. In 2007, NYPD issued around 75,000 speeding tickets, according to TA's report "Executive Order," which also found that a city driver could speed every day and get ticketed only once every 35 years. An anonymous officer quoted by the Post claimed that cops don't generally initiate a traffic stop unless a driver is traveling 15 to 20 mph over the limit.

Speeding is not a victimless crime. TA found that while the number of traffic fatalities caused by speeding rose by 11 percent between 2001 and 2006, the number of summonses issued for speeding dropped 22 percent during the same period. A pedestrian hit by a driver obeying the city's 30 mph speed limit has about a 45 percent chance of dying as a result of the collision. At 40 mph, the likelihood of death jumps to between 70 and 85 percent.

Put another way, being hit by an automobile at 40 mph is like falling off a five-story building. The Post calculated an average speed of 37 mph by cab drivers on Park Avenue at East 84th Street.

Commissioner Ray Kelly has indicated that he is perfectly happy with NYPD's record on traffic enforcement. Contacted by Streetsblog, the Taxi and Limousine Commission gave no indication that the agency is considering measures to slow down speeding cab drivers.

We couldn't help notice that, while police information czar Paul Browne was seemingly chatting up every media outlet in town about his boss coming to the aid of a fallen pedestrian this week, we were adding two letters to our stack of NYPD freedom of information rejections. 

As we announced last week, in most of the pedestrian fatality cases for which we've filed FOIL requests, authorities have reportedly determined the driver was not at fault. Some cases are months old. Yet of the 10 requests submitted so far, NYPD has declined to release any information pertaining to eight deaths. By contrast, within hours the department supplied the press with meticulous details of Wednesday's collision between a cyclist and a pedestrian, a scene Commissioner Ray Kelly happened upon en route to the St. Patrick's Day parade. We can't sum up the double-standard any better than Streetsblog reader BicyclesOnly:

This is blatant manipulation of public information by the NYPD and they've got to be called on it. The media should demand an explanation from Browne right now as to why there is a different policy concerning release of public information on crashes depending upon the identify of the victim.

Of course there was no such demand from reporters, who were content to package Wednesday's incident as a heartwarming slice-of-life feature.

Meanwhile, the City Council may soon try to force NYPD to loosen its grip on crash information for the good of all New Yorkers who don't happen to fall in the presence of our heroic police commissioner.