Streetsblog New York City

The families organizing the demonstration at the Manhattan DA's office, which was planned for Monday morning, are postponing the event due to the snowstorm hitting the city. The rally is tentatively re-scheduled for next Monday, March 9. We'll let you know when the date has been finalized.

City Room is reporting that Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau will not seek re-election this year. Morgenthau, who will turn 90 this summer, has held the post since 1975.

His departure marks a changing of the guard and opens one of Manhattan’s plum elected posts for the first time in decades — a major draw in a year when the overturning of term limits has left many of the city’s ambitious younger politicians pondering their future.

This changing of the guard could also be a tremendous opportunity to make traffic justice an issue in the election of the next DA. Morgenthau's successor will replace the man whose office recently doled out a 16-day jail term to a speeding drunk driver who killed a woman and left the scene -- just one example of the cheapening of human life that livable streets advocates have, sadly, come to expect from the borough's top enforcer.

Even before today's news, Leslie Crocker Snyder had again thrown her hat in the ring. Here's hoping she and her opponents will give public safety on New York City streets the attention it sorely needs.

Relatives of Hayley Ng and Diego Martinez, two preschoolers struck and killed by a van in Chinatown on January 22, continue to demand justice from Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

On WCBS television this week, Hayley's aunt, Wendy Cheung, reiterated both families' call for citizens to contact Morgenthau's office and demand further action in the case. The driver, who left the van running and in reverse before it hit Hayley and Diego, currently faces no charges.

"We [are] pleading for everybody to call the DA's office ... and make a statement," Cheung said. "Tell them 'You can't forget this. We need to investigate this.'"

As has been pointed out by a Streetsblog commenter, Morgenthau last month brought charges against crane operators whose negligence, the DA's office contends, caused the deaths of seven people. On January 5, William Rapetti and his company were indicted on multiple charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault, stemming from a crane collapse last March.

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Seekers of traffic justice have their work cut out for them in 2009. Even as the City Council dismisses cries for help from victims and their families, January has already brought news of a nine-year-old run down by an unlicensed driver who may or may not be criminally charged, and a DWI pedestrian killer who got off with an unbelievable 16-day sentence.

In the case of the latter, at least, the Daily News reports that the victim's loved ones aren't taking it lying down. Recall that in January of last year, Florence Cioffi was struck and killed on a Lower Manhattan street by one George Anderson. Anderson, who was driving at 60 m.p.h., fled the scene in his Mercedes SUV, only to return some time later, when he refused to submit to a Breathalyzer test. Because Cioffi was also found to be intoxicated, the Manhattan DA's office chose to plead out the case, and let Anderson off with a charge of DWI and "leaving the scene of an accident." In addition to the 16 days in jail -- to be served over eight weekends -- Anderson will do 250 hours of community service and pay a fine of $350.

It should come as no surprise that Cioffi's fiance, William Mosca, does not feel justice has been done.

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In the weeks since their daughter lost her life on a Lower Manhattan street, Hope Miller's parents have learned to be patient.

On September 25, Miller was on her way to acting class when she was hit by a truck at the corner of Houston Street and Sixth Avenue. According to reports, Roger Smiley, 48, of Brooklyn, was fleeing the scene of a collision at Sixth and Spring Street when he turned right, where Miller and two classmates were crossing Houston. Her friends managed to clear Smiley's path, but Miller didn't make it. Hope died before reaching St. Vincent's Hospital. She was 28.

Initial media coverage said Smiley was charged with resisting arrest, driving under the influence of drugs and leaving the scene, and that he was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Police at first speculated that he was on cocaine. Barbara Thompson, public information officer with Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's office, says Smiley has since put forth a differing account.

"He made a claim that he passed out, that he suffered a stroke," Thompson says. Smiley missed his initial court appearance because, according to his attorney, he was in the hospital.

As Smiley provides medical records to the authorities, Miller's parents, Ivan and Patricia, continue to wait it out from their home in Appleton, Wisconsin.

"To me it's a little, 'disconcerting' I think would be the term, that it takes so long," says Mr. Miller, speaking with Streetsblog before Thanksgiving. Some six weeks after Hope was killed, the Millers had yet to receive a report from the NYPD, for which they had to mail in $10. Miller says it took almost a month before they learned the results of Smiley's blood test -- negative for drugs and alcohol, according to police. Himself a science teacher, Miller doesn't understand how a relatively simple procedure could take so much time.

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If you want to know how many cars were stolen in your neighborhood on any given week, the NYPD is happy to tell you. You don't even need to make a phone call, as "CompStat" data -- which also includes figures on murders, rapes, robberies, and burglaries -- is posted online and updated regularly, precinct by precinct.

If, however, you want to know how many people were hit by cars or where the most dangerous intersections are in your neighborhood, CompStat won't help you. Those numbers aren't there. And if you're looking for details of an incident in which someone was hurt or killed by a driver, your quest is likely to be frustratingly difficult, if not impossible. Even if you're a member of a New York City Community Board.

Ian Dutton knows this story well. After Hope Miller, 28, an aspiring actress from Queens, was killed on Houston Street on September 25, Dutton -- who serves on CB 2's Traffic and Transportation Committee and lives a block from where Miller died -- began making calls. According to media reports, the driver of the truck that killed Miller, 48-year-old Roger Smiley of Brooklyn, was charged with leaving the scene, operating a vehicle while impaired by drugs, and resisting arrest. He was not, however, charged with killing Miller. Dutton wanted to know why.

He started with Rita Lee, a senior advisor in Council Member Alan Gerson's office, who gave him a few phone numbers. Some of them didn't work anymore. When he got through to the office of New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau (left), Dutton says most the people he talked to were "outwardly dismissive." Claiming no record of an incident involving a Roger Smiley or Hope Miller, DA office personnel instructed Dutton to get an arrest number from the police.

Since the site of the crash is near the boundary separating the two, Dutton was then bounced between NYPD Precincts 1 and 6. It took ten phone calls to find someone willing to offer any help -- an officer at the 6th Precinct who told Dutton that, when a driver kills a pedestrian, a charge of homicide is brought if drugs or alcohol are involved. If the driver is sober, the offense merits a traffic ticket.

"That sounded ridiculous," Dutton says, "but it sounded like it was the modus operandi."

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