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Around 2:30AM yesterday morning, 89-year-old Allan Stevenson was crossing First Avenue at East 73rd Street in Manhattan when a Mazda Miata fatally struck him. The car did not stop.
A veteran theater and film actor, Stevenson, who walked with a cane and lived at 399 East 72nd Street for 40 years, had a late night ritual around his neighborhood. According to the NY Times, he would have a "glass of red wine at Delizia, the restaurant around the corner. Next, he stopped by the S.A.S. deli to pick up a bagel with butter, a newspaper and a steaming cup of coffee with milk and two sugars." Stevenson's doorman Jim Quinn told WPIX, "He did this every Monday and Tuesday night for me. He'd go and get the coffee and bring it back for me."
Leonel Gomez, who works at Delizia, told the Daily News that the "light was flashing" when Stevenson was trying to cross and that the Miata was speeding at 80MPH, blowing through the red light, when it hit the elderly man. S.A.S Deli worker Pablo Catorce, who sold him the coffee, said, "I feel bad. I knew the guy for 17 years. He used to be my friend. We'd talk sports."
His sister, Ruth Steven Gladstone, though, was philosophical, "I feel very sad, but he lived almost 90 years and that's a long time. He had a nice life." Still, police are urging people with information about a red Mazda Miata with a damaged front to come forward (it was later seen turning right onto East 76th) and call CrimeStoppers (800-577-TIPS).
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Yesterday morning (10/24) as I left my aptartment near the corner of 81st and 2nd there was a dead man covered in blood being photographed and covered with a sheet by about 10 policemen. This was at about 7:30 AM. I have not seen this anywhere in the news. Does anyone know what happened?
It seems as if there is a hit and run every other day. The city needs to do more to raise awareness of this issue and perhaps stiffen penalties. RIP Allan.
can we just ban cars in the city already? imagine how nice it would be without these selfish, murderous assholes zooming around.
Traveling 80 on an Ave. in Manhattan? One has to assume that you're going to kill someone. That Miata driver is a murderer.
While I think all the hit and run accidents we have here are ridiculous, can we please stop reporting things like "an observer said the car was going 80 MPH" as if they were any sort of fact?
I guess the drivers' of these hit & runs figure, "If everyone else is leaving the scene of an accident and not getting caught, I might as well do it too". It's happening like everyday.
But are these guys getting caught? You always hear about the hitting, but the newspapers never following up about the investigations.
Enough from the self-righteous pedestrians already. Maybe everyone can actually try looking where they are going instead of pulling out the reactionary bulls**t like banning cars. When you really think about it NYC would be unlivable if we didn't allow vehicles. How would things get delivered? Just drop them on the shores of rivers and you can come and get them on your bicycle or on the subway? get real and stop your harping.
'Enough from the self-righteous pedestrians already.'
what a stupid thing to say.
did you really think anyone is actually serious about banning all cars? i can't believe your reaction to these hypothetical comments...you must be one of the people that drives themselves 80 mph around a city that has perfectly good public transit...
some pedestrians are too careless when crossing the street, but certainly a driver going twice the speed limit through a red light is at fault here...
MT (#8) - there's lots of ways to limit auto traffic in this city that have been discussed here and elsewhere. Begin by redesigning city streets so they are less like speedways (face it, streets like 3rd Avenue are essentially 4 lane highways) and make them more like residential streets. That would include eliminating lanes, redesigning intersections, resetting street lights, and actually enforcing driving laws.
Bloomberg and his cronies operate under the delusion that more automobiles = more business for the city. It's not quite as simple as that.
According to the Daily News, the light was flashing while he was crossing so he wasn't jaywalking. Even if he was, cars must yield to pedestrians. I gues when you are driving 80MPH, that's pretty impossible to do.
they shouldn't banned cars just tax and tolls the cars.
this way eliminate a lot of unwanted traffic. increase trains and buses all around.
@MT. thats ridiculous, nyc would not be unlivable without cars. other than the transportation of large items i see no need for cars. you could grant permits to delivery vehicles and have set delivery times that they can be on the roads, permits for uhauls etc so people can move. but why do we need passenger cars? driving is a luxury and in my opinion completely unnecessary in a dense urban environment such as nyc. if you can't brave the metro-north in from westchester to get to work thats not my problem.
It is strange how old people tend to do the same thing every night. What year does that start happening?
You make it almost 90 years and then lose your life to a Miata... sucks. :(
geez! while i can understand in part the sister's reationalization, approaching ninety and having had a nice [read, long] life does not in any way make this death any more palatable.
yes, chelly, you are correct! if more of these speeding $@#$@# would get caught and punished, fewer people would drive liek that.
I think running a "don't leave the scene" ad campaign would send the opposite message, that if you run you won't get caught. I guess they'd have to focus on the hit-and-runs that they do catch, and be like "ha, asshole, you had to run away, now it's 10 times worse."
One way to catch all these hit-and-run drivers would be blanket surveillance.
@bklynd: Congestion pricing requires stiff monitoring. It also reduces traffic. Therefore, congestion pricing will reduce hit-and-runs in Manhattan!
I hate speeders with a passion. Most people who speed and pass slow cars do this just to go no where. Most have no where important to be or do they just have to drive their desire speed. Just like a wise person told me, "Why speed just to get stopped by a red light or stop sign?"
At that age it would be a nice final reward to die on your own bed not run over by a maniac.
When was the last time anyone delivered something to you in a car, much less a Mazda Miata? Last I looked the delivery vehicle of choice around here are trucks and vans. Give those with commercial plates a pass and let the rest of them pay a congestion toll. There's no reason in the world why these people can't leave their Miatas at home.
Yes, driving in the city encourages economic activity etc., but at what point does it start driving (sorry) down the quality of life for the people who actually live here? When kids start getting asthma at ridiculous rates? When honking horns wake you up multiple times in the night? When a 90-year old man is ruthlessly run down by a Miata?
Miata=tin can with engine.
Only women drive Mazda Miatas so I would start there. And the 80 miles an hour was probably closer to 50.
I would have expected this to be an SUV not a Miata.
I liek having a car. I rarely drive it into Manhattan, but there are times when I need to during the night. I don't drink though or drive like an ass.
[8] Maybe everyone can actually try looking where they are going instead of pulling out the reactionary bulls**t like banning cars.
Talk about reactionary bullshit. Maybe you can point out one sentence, one word even, that shows the old man wasn't looking where he was going. The person who hit him broke the law, flagrantly and repeatedly, by speeding, leaving the scene of an accident, etc. MT has the worst reductio ad absurdum argument I've seen in ages. You'd better hope you never get into an accident either on foot or in your car, because you won't get sympathy here. You should have looked where you were going.
"And the 80 miles an hour was probably closer to 50"
While true, that's still about twice as fast as anyone should be allowed to drive in Manhattan.
"And the 80 miles an hour was probably closer to 50"
While true, that's still about twice as fast as anyone should be allowed to drive in Manhattan.