Grief, solidarity and resolve brought out two hundred New York cyclists yesterday for the third annual Ghost Bikes Memorial Ride, to commemorate cyclists killed by motor vehicle drivers last year.

At the Canal Street & Bowery triangle by the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge bike path, Steve Hindy raised his empty arms in a pantomime of a bike lift in honor of his son Sam, age 27, who died on Nov. 16 when he struck a barrier and fell to the bridge's lower roadway, where he was hit by a car.

"Sam died because he could not find his way," Steve told the throng, which had converged from separate feeder rides in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx and was squinting in the late-afternoon sun. "Look around and you'll see this area was designed for cars." Cars and nothing but cars, Steve might have said. And he might have said the same for every street the riders visited en route to 14 known sites of cycle fatalities in 2007. (Another 9 fatalities were consecrated at an "unknown cyclist" ghost bike installation on the Park Row sidewalk outside City Hall.)

The Brooklyn contingent alighted in mid-morning on Bay Parkway in Bensonhurst, at the ghost bike created for 18-year-old Mark Grichevsky, a senior at City-As-School and a veteran intern at Recycle-A-Bicycle. On May 29, Mark, who lived in Bensonhurst, was struck by a car while cycling. He was thrown from his bike and suffered fatal head injuries, despite wearing a helmet. He died four days later.

Several hours later, we were in Bushwick at the corner of Central & Palmetto Avenues, at a shrine marked with flowers, a cross and a kid-sized ghost bike. Last April 29, Anthony Delgado, age 13, was bike-riding with a friend when one SUV passing another went into Anthony's lane and killed him before speeding off. The family's own black GMC Envoy, a luxury SUV with license plate ANT94 marking Anthony's year of birth, was double-parked just up the block. "He wanted to be a car mechanic when he got older," said his mother. The Envoy's back windows were inscribed with tributes from Anthony's parents, his brother and three sisters.

Earlier, as we wended through Flatbush, Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy, two drivers had cursed at cyclists who were briefly "corking" -- crossing traffic so the riders could stay together. During this long stretch through the sprawling heart of Brooklyn, the family of 47-year-old Jeffrey Moore was waiting to meet us at Chauncey St. & Rockaway Ave. in Ocean Hill. Moore's sister Jade Oliver thanked the crowd for remembering Jeffrey, a construction worker and former amateur boxer, who was run over on his bike on May 29. Shaqwana Oliver, his niece, added: "I just want to thank you all for coming out and showing love to my uncle. We really appreciate you because we miss him so much.This just brings a lot of comfort to us. When people say you don’t care, you all just proved that people do care, so thank you."

Early in the morning of Oct. 18, 26-year-old Craig Murphey was killed by a turning fuel oil truck in East Williamsburg. The only witness, the truck driver himself, claimed that Murphey was racing the truck to the intersection. As Streetsblog previously reported, Murphey's friends say this would have been unlike Murphey, an experienced cyclist who rode daily from Brooklyn to his job in Harlem. It would also have required him to be riding away from his home in the wee hours of the morning.

Murphey was a social worker with the West Harlem Action Network Against Poverty and a member of Right Rides, a group that provides late-night rides and walks home to GLBT populations vulnerable to assault. The leader of the Brooklyn ride and a key Ghost Bikes organizer, Ryan Kuonen, fought back tears as she spoke at Craig's site: "This is someone I happened to know, though not well, mostly from passing him on the streets and on the bridge. Every ghost bike is made with a lot of love, and this one is especially so. Every time a biker is hit I wonder if it's someone I know. This time it was."

Ryan, who rallied the riders at every stop during the long day, was one of dozens who researched the crashes, installed the ghost bikes, designed the routes, got the word out, reached out to families and attended to countless details. For this writer, who helped start the Street Memorial Project over a dozen years ago, yesterday's ride, with hundreds of cyclists fanning out across the city in a perfectly choreographed ensemble, was a dream come true, despite the nightmarish context.

The final stop was City Hall. Consistent with its marginalization of cyclists in death as in life, the NYPD provided only a single "security check" line for cyclists to enter the sanctum of City Hall plaza. Judging the wait to be at least a half-hour, emotionally spent from the ride, and contemplating my own precious family, I got on my bike and pedaled home.

Photo: darko666/Flickr

At 9:40 p.m. on a Friday evening last December, 27-year-old Eugenio Cidron left an office party at Chelsea Piers, steered his silver BMW onto the Hudson River Greenway, a bicycle and pedestrian path where cars are not allowed, and drove south for a full mile until he smashed head-on into cyclist 22-year-old Eric Ng at Clarkson Street, killing him instantly.

Cidron, who was drunk, pleaded guilty in November to second-degree manslaughter, in exchange for a sentence of 3½ to 10½ years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Thursday morning, Jan. 3, in lower Manhattan. A number of Eric's friends and associates plan to be there.

I'll be there too, although I never met Eric, a graduate of the NYC Department of Education's teaching fellow program who was subbing at Automotive High School in Greenpoint at the time of his death. But I know that a prison term for killing a cyclist or pedestrian is a rarity - roughly on the order of a comet, say, or a total solar eclipse. Most killer-drivers get off scot-free or, at worst, get their license lifted or receive a suspended sentence. If Cidron is actually going upstate for a while, I want to see it happen.

Perhaps that sounds harsh or bloody-minded. Perhaps it is. But after twenty-some years of watching the brutal and cavalier way drivers routinely treat other road users, I think some payback, and pushback, is long overdue.

Perhaps those of us who ride should bring bike gear into the courtroom to self-identify. That seems fitting. Writing last year about Eric's death, I said, "Everyone who rides in New York dies a little when a cyclist is killed." Our presence will reflect that.

I hope not just Cidron and his family but the D.A.'s office -- indeed, the entire city -- will feel our grief at losing Eric and see our resolve to hold drivers accountable for acts that rend the community.

Sentencing is scheduled for 9:30 am, Thursday, January 3, at NY State Supreme Court, 111 Centre Street, Room 948 (9th Floor) "Part 32," in the court of Justice Gregory Carro. It is possible that other sentencings may precede Cidron's, so plan accordingly.

The Staten Island Advance reports:

Guttu was crossing Bement, heading east from Chase Manhattan Bank at around 2:40 p.m. Saturday, when he was struck by a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder driven by 47-year-old Theresa Totorelli of West Brighton, according to a police report.

Ms. Tortorelli -- who had been heading west on Forest Avenue and just made a left onto Bement -- claimed she did not see Guttu in the road until it was too late.

Guttu was conscious when police arrived and complained of "pain all over his body," the report said.

There were no tickets issued at the scene, though police say an investigation is ongoing. Reports say Tortorelli was not speeding and was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. According to NY1, the medical examiner "has ruled the death an accident, caused by the impact of the crash."

As Wagner faculty, alumni, and acquaintances and friends of Guttu pay their respects, SI Advance readers are debating who, if anyone, is responsible for the popular chaplain's death.

Some want justice and safer conditions for Staten Island pedestrians:

If Rev. Guttu was just walking down Forest Avenue IN THE CROSSWALK, this then should be a vehicular homicide. Whenever a car makes a turn, the car MUST give right of way to any pedestrians in the crosswalk when the pedestrian has a green light or a walk sign!

While to others, c'est la vie: 

They call these situations accidents because thats what they are. The Reverend was loved by all who knew him but he also knew how to love. If he were here he would remind you to forgive. Rest in peace, Reverend Guttu. My families prayers are with you and the unfortunate soul who will forever grieve over this accident.

In other news, an unidentified woman was killed on Queens Boulevard Wednesday when she was hit by a cement truck. The victim, according the Daily News, "was walking north along Woodhaven Blvd. toward the Queens Center Mall about 1 p.m. when she tried to cross in front of the truck." Unfortunately, she "may have stumbled and fallen beneath the ... truck's wheels." A witness told the News the victim was trying to "beat the light." There were no such speculations regarding the actions of the driver, who reportedly wasn't sure he had hit the woman lying in the street with tire marks on her clothing, and who was not charged. His boss described her death as "an unfortunate thing, especially at this time of year."

The deaths of two Brooklyn cyclists just hours apart yesterday have resulted in a homicide charge and an outpouring of grief for a man friends describe as "a truly thoughtful and selfless individual." Friends of one of the victims are also questioning the official account of his death.

City dailies report that Williamsburg resident Alfred Taylor, 41, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide for killing an as-yet-unidentified cyclist on Fulton Street in Bed Stuy around 6 a.m. Thursday. Police say Taylor was driving a speeding van when he struck the 25-year-old cyclist, whose name is being withheld pending notification of relatives.

As Streetsblog readers well know, it is virtually unheard of for a driver to face a charge of any sort after hitting a cyclist or pedestrian, as long as the driver is sober and stays at the scene. We will keep an eye on this case as it progresses.

Meanwhile, no charges were filed in the death of 26-year-old Craig Murphey, who according to police and media reports was hit by a turning gas truck just after 4 a.m. yesterday while riding southbound in the northbound lane of Union Avenue at Ten Eyck Street.

But Elizabeth Weinberg, a friend of Murphey's, tells Streetsblog that doesn't make sense:

We know for a fact that he was coming from Lorimer (at Broadway) at that time (dropping off our friend) and heading to his place on South 3rd in Brooklyn, so he had to have been going NORTH on Union Ave, not south like the police report said. There is no way Craig would be riding against traffic and he had no reason to head back down in the opposite direction from home. He rode to work everyday in Harlem from Brooklyn; he knew what he was doing.

Murphey did social work with the West Harlem Action Network Against Poverty and was reportedly a member of Right Rides, a group that provides late-night rides and walks home to GLBT populations vulnerable to assault. Friends have dedicated a Flickr photo pool to Murphey, and are directing donations made in his name to WHANAP.

Photo of Craig Murphey courtesy Elizabeth Weinberg via Flickr

Two men, both bicyclists, were killed in separate accidents in Brooklyn Thursday morning.

In the first, police say a bicyclist was struck and killed by an oil truck at the intersection of Union Avenue and Ten Eyck Street in the East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

The bicyclist, a 26-year-old Massachusetts resident, was hit while cycling in the wrong direction just after 4:15 a.m.

He was allegedly trying to beat the oil truck, turning from southbound Union Avenue to Ten Eyck Street, when he was struck.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

No charges were filed.

Later, authorities say a 25-year-old bicyclist was struck by a white passenger van at the intersection of Utica Avenue and Fulton Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

The bicyclist was pronounced dead at the scene, in front of a church.

The driver of the passenger van was not immediately charged. The accident was under investigation.

A woman who lives near Union and Ten Eyck describes the scene:

I came up to the intersection this morning at around 7 a.m., and it had crime scene tape around it. There was a large truck (like an oil truck perhaps) stopped, post turn, and when I turned to look I saw a bicycle completely flattened under the back left tire. The person had been removed from the scene, but from the somber expressions and the remains on the road it was clear that this individual didn't survive. I would like to honor my neighbor in some way. This is so sad. I ride a bike pretty frequently and run all the time in the neighborhood. The intersection is absolutely terrible, people just peel around and often come very close to hitting me or my dog. As a matter of fact, I was just telling my friend on Monday about almost being hit a few blocks up from this (when I had a walk sign). Actually, all the intersections along Union Avenue in WBurg are like that. It is really, really hard to cross the street. The intersection where this tragedy occurred is a "T" so you can really only cross when the walk light says stop, because no one ever, ever, ever pays attention to the walk signal when they have the green light. This is so sad and senseless. After I walked by the scene, I saw so many cars in a rush try to run over pedestrians at Grand and Union, a few blocks away. I saw a car honking at a cyclist and come aggressively close to him on Union just past Grand. It is so sad. Is there anything we can do to make drivers more accountable for their recklessness?

Spurred by the death of third-grader Prince Harris, Jr. (pictured), the fourth pedestrian to die this year along a notorious stretch of Ninth Avenue, the Clinton/Hell's Kitchen Pedestrian Safety Coalition (CHEKPEDS) is again urging the city to convene an interagency panel "to address this critical health issue."

On Friday, 8-year-old Harris was on his way to a park with his father and siblings when he reportedly "darted on W. 17th St." and was hit by a Toyota Scion, driven by an unidentified 44-year-old man. Harris's father said the Toyota and a taxi "were speeding down the block to make the light." The driver stayed at the scene and was not issued a ticket.

Today CHEKPEDS issued an e-mail bulletin offering condolences to the Harris family, and imploring the city to turn its attention to the pedestrian casualty epidemic.

The "new DOT" is moving fast and all problems cannot be tackled in one day. Priorities must be set, and in our book none is more important than pedestrian safety. 11,000 injuries and 163 deaths annually would qualify as a national disaster if they were all happening in one day. But they keep happening year after year.

In March, CHEKPEDS worked with Community Board 4 to draft a letter (PDF) to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer asking them to organize a citywide task force "bringing the various players to the table to address street and signal engineering, agencies jurisdiction, enforcement and traffic safety laws, reporting traffic problems and police procedures in accidents." But it hasn't happened.

Also over the weekend, a speeding taxicab jumped a curb and struck three members of the same family, killing 60-year-old TV helicopter pilot Paul Smith; no criminal charges have thus far been reported. On Staten Island, a 4-year-old is "fighting for her life" after being hit by a car yesterday while trying to cross the street with a group of other children; the unidentified driver was not ticketed. And yesterday morning in Coney Island, the driver of a charter bus making a U-turn hit an 60-year-old woman, knocking her down and running over her abdomen; the driver was not charged.

This weekend's carnage comes after last week's angry memorials to Hope Miller and Julia Thomson, who were run down five days apart at the end of September.

Photo of Prince Harris via New York Daily News

The man who police arrested for hitting and killing 24-year-old Julia Thomson last weekend has been charged with vehicular homicide.

According to the Daily News and the Post, police say Tenzing Bhutia, a 21-year-old Baruch College senior from Queens, knew he hit "something" with his father's Mercedes, but did not stop.

Thomson was struck by a speeding car as she tried to cross Bowery at E. 4th Street early Sunday morning. She died almost instantly, suffering massive head injuries.

Bhutia was arrested hours after the collision when a police officer spotted the damaged car. His blood alcohol level when tested was .087, just above the legal limit of .08. Bhutia was initially charged with driving while impaired and leaving the scene of an accident. Yesterday he was arraigned on the vehicular homicide charge, which carries a penalty of up to seven years. He was held in lieu of $75,000 bail.

The Post says Thomson, who was from Scotland but had dual American citizenship, had been showing a British girlfriend around town. She was heading toward her nearby apartment when she was killed, at around 4 a.m.

Streetsblog visited the scene today. There is no indication of what happened there other than a small bouquet of flowers tied to a signpost in the center of Bowery. Employees working the lunch shift at two corner bars said they didn't witness the collision, though the Post spoke with a doorman and barmaid who did.

Time's Up! will be holding memorials for Thomson and Hope Miller, a 28-year-old pedestrian killed on Houston Street on September 25, starting tonight at 6:30 at Houston and 6th Ave.

Photo: Brad Aaron

The cases differ in two crucial respects. The driver involved in the crash that killed Pelicone was also charged with criminally negligent homicide; the driver identified as Thomson's killer was not. Pelicone was a passenger in the wrecked vehicle; Thomson was a pedestrian trying to cross the street.

This is no isolated instance, of course. Just last week a Greenwich Village pedestrian was killed by a driver charged with driving under the influence of drugs, but was not charged for killing 28-year-old aspiring actress Hope Miller.

On September 4, a driver arrested for running down and killing 7-year-old Christian Acteopan was charged with leaving the scene; another driver who hit Acteopan after the first vehicle stayed at the scene and was not charged.

On September 1, Ismael Mercado, 47, was "accidentally" run over on West 54th Street by a driver who was not charged.

The list goes on. The circumstances of each death are inherently different, and details are often not known or are overlooked, in part because of the way they are reported by the media or recorded by police. But the deaths of Mr. Pelicone and Ms. Thomson, assuming no additional charges are brought, offer a chilling snapshot of how city police and prosecutors value, and devalue, human life based on whether one is or is not inside an automobile.

Photo of Julia Thomson via New York Daily News

The Daily News reports:

After months of community pressure, city Department of Transportation officials promised Brooklyn News the traffic-light timing would be adjusted over the weekend ... with an increased interval allowing pedestrians more time to cross the street.

"A little call from a reporter never hurt anything," said Principal Christina Fuentes who was notified by Brooklyn News late last week - not the DOT - that the light would be adjusted.

A third-grader was hit by a car and injured near the school last spring, prompting parents and others in the neighborhood to seek safety improvements -- along with Transportation Alternatives, which has consistently cited signal timing as an easy and effective means of reducing pedestrian injuries and deaths.

Transportation Alternatives has requested safety measures for other schools along dangerous Third and Fourth Aves., said TA official Brooke DuBose.

More than 30 pedestrians have been killed along the avenues since 1995 - including six children since 2004, according to TA figures.

Meanwhile, in Bushwick, a 7-year-old who was looking forward to starting first grade today was run down by two vehicles on Sunday as he crossed Bleecker Street with his mother and 8-year-old brother. Christian Acteopan died after being hit by a Mitsubishi Eclipse, which fled the scene, and a second vehicle traveling behind. The driver of the Eclipse was found and charged with leaving the scene of an accident; the second driver stayed at the scene and was not charged.

Acteopan's death comes less than a week after the unveiling of the heart-rending monument to three children killed by motorists on Third Avenue. The event included an announcement that DOT will be making long-awaited pedestrian safety improvements to intersections throughout Downtown Brooklyn.

Photo: New York Post

While Transportation Alternatives cites dangerous conditions created by the lack of bike lanes, the News draws a different conclusion:

[T]he numbers don't lie. Stats show that in most incidents, bicycles are to blame.

Out of 29 bicycle accidents in the 94th Precinct during May, June and July this year, the cyclist was found at fault in 17.

Numbers don't lie? Traffic policing can be awfully subjective, particularly in a precinct that has made its bias perfectly clear as of late.

Discuss.

R.A. Whitworth, whose Maryland-based company conducts highway safety research for attorneys, insurance companies and even government agencies, discovered a few years ago that federal regulators were collecting the global coordinates of fatal accidents and linking them to its database, known as the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, or FARS. The database is one of the most important kept by the federal government.

Almost by happenstance, Whitworth discovered on the agency's website in 2004 the geographic coordinates of fatal accidents. He immediately saw the value: He could create maps of accidents, providing insights into where they were occurring on any given day and under what conditions.

He downloaded the data to his computer, but a few days later it was gone from the website. He called the agency and explained that the data had disappeared and he would like the agency to repost it. Officials called the posting a mistake and said he should erase it from his own computer, he recalled.

Whitworth waited until the following year, to see if the agency would again mistakenly post the data. This time, it did not. So he filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the agency in September 2005. The request was denied.


The rejection letter said that "the disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." Exactly how a set of coordinates would invade a dead person's privacy was not made clear. Police routinely release the names of fatal-accident victims....

Whitworth appealed the decision in November 2005, but never heard back from the agency.

What did he learn from the 2004 data that he downloaded? Among other things, he discovered an alarming number of crashes of sport utility vehicles occurred on hot days on Interstate 15 in San Bernardino County, as Southern Californians headed to Las Vegas. That interested him, because he is doing research for attorneys suing Ford Motor Co. for rollovers involving Explorers equipped with Firestone tires.

"Is there a disconnect between where the money is needed to curb fatal accidents and where it is actually going?" Whitworth wonders. "I don't know, but I am not satisfied with the answers I am getting."