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Three pedestrians were killed by drivers in three separate accidents in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan yesterday, but there's one thing that ties the incidents together: As usual, none of the drivers were charged. In Harlem, 73-year-old great-grandmother Vivian Long, a retired teacher's aide, was crossing Amsterdam Avenue with her granddaughter when she was fatally struck by an Access-A-Ride vehicle. (For the record, Access-A-Ride drivers are the worst.) She died at St. Luke's Hospital. In Borough Park, 25-year-old Matvey Smolovich, who according to his relatives had mental problems, was run over by a mini school bus around 10 a.m. after stepping out from between parked cars 100 feet from the crosswalk. His father tells the Daily News, "He left the house without my permission... After this I don't care about anything. My life is ruined." The 55-year-old bus driver stayed at the scene, and the NYPD is investigating, but hasn't arrested anyone. Then in Flushing, Queens, the 19-year-old driver of a Nissan Altima killed a jogger who also stepped into the street from between parked cars. He was rushed to New York Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Three Drivers, Three Dead Pedestrians, Zero Charges
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The World March for Peace and Nonviolence comes to New York tomorrow, Monday, November 30, 2009, on
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what can we do about the lax regulation of drivers in this town?
drivers in this city have all the rights. I'm not a cyclist rather a pedestrian and want to do something about this.
Here's what you can do: don't step out from between parked cars. That seems to be the connecting thread with these three accidents.
The Grandma did not step out from between parked cars.
They are equally as likely to speed up to try to beat the light (the concept of slowing at yellow lights seems to have gone the way of the Model T) and often they end up rolling right through red lights.Well here are two problems that I see when I'm driving or walking around New York.
1. NY drivers have a tendency of slamming their breaks when coming to any red light or stop sign as opposed to just slowing down ahead of time. This results in drivers over-shooting crosswalks or stop lines.
2. Pedestrians seem to have this notion that they don't have to look before crossing a street (mentally deficient or not). Just because there is a crosswalk, it doesn't mean you can just cross when you feel like it. Plus crossing from between parked cars is just asking for trouble. Drivers are expecting people to cross from corners or crosswalks.
Solution: Wise up!
Thank you for putting this out there.
I'm so so sick of this failure of people to be charged for killing pedestrians.
Yes, people should pay more attention, but the price to pay should be on the driver.
n
I've never seen such reckless driving as I do with the Access-a-Rides. Maybe they're trying to shore up customers.
seriously, who doesnt look both ways when crossing the street? it sounds like these people just walked out onto the street without looking and *hoped* that any car would be able to slow down for them. i guess that didnt work.
"For the record, Access-A-Ride drivers are the worst."
What is it with Access-A-Ride? Do they hire nothing but those kamikaze dollar van drivers? It's amazing how much more dangerously they seem to drive than everyone else.
"none of the drivers were charged."
Correction: None of the drivers has been charged.
Except in DUI cases, you'll never see drivers charged at the scene of a fatal accident other than for related traffic violations. Never the felony charges that the resulting death could bring.
Why not? Because it can't be done. Felony charged in NYS require a grand jury indictment.
So hopefully we'll have a followup to these three stories after investigations are complete, the decision whether or not to indict has been made, and a grand jury has made it's decision. Kind of boring, but that's the system.
Hadn't even read the details when I posted that, sorry. So at least two of these accidents involved pedestrians stepping into traffic from between parked cars in the middle of a block.
Absent any evidence of a traffic violation, how could (or why should) those drivers be charged? I mean, shouldn't you have to be doing something illegal before you get charged with breaking a law?
Driving's still legal.
For the most part Access-A-Ride drivers come from countries that have little experience with motor vehicles.
name a country where people have little experience with motor vehicles, please.
sweden?
There are many villages in the dark continent and South America that don't have motorized vehicle problems. Simply because they don't have many motorized vehicles.
Sweden is not one of them. If you see a person of Swedish descent driving an Access-A-Ride vehicle please take a picture of same and post it here.
This type of shit never happened with horse drawn carriages... Mayor Mike needs to ban all cars everywhere. It is for our own good
Please, please, PLEASE do not mention horses, especially around the word carriages (or Liam Neeson) on Gothamist.
You KNOW what happens.
Cars are a plague, a blight.
In these cases it seems like the pedestrians were at fault for crossing between park cars. Why would the drives be charged then? Makes sense for them not being charged. Even if they're speeding pedestrians should know better to look both ways or cross at the end of the block.
The story about the 73-year old grandmother being killed does NOT say she stepped out from between cars.
Footage from the accident here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGhu5Zl5ry8
Emphasis on "BOTH WAYS", I've seen emergency vehicles, out of state drivers and cyclists all driving the wrong way down a one way street. Oh and just because your in a cross walk with the ROW doesn't mean you shouldn't look too.
Sure, OK, pedestrians should not be retarded and walk out in front of moving vehicles. Got it.
But how about all the speeding cars hitting people every day in intersections? Or the all-too-frequent mowing-down of pedestrians on sidewalks by cars that have lost control? Guess what: This happens less often if the drivers are not speeding in the first place.
I'd settle for ticketing jaywalkers if we could EVER get drivers ticketed for speeding around here.
I had an Access-A-Ride van come up behind me, blaring his horn on Union Street in Park Slope while I was riding my bike as far to the right as I could get. I pulled over, he zipped around, and I caught up to him at the next light, where he repeated the whole thing over again. The second time, he swerved to the right to try to hit me in the head/helmet with his side mirror.
Realizing this would have likely killed me, when I got back to him at the next light, he started yelling at me, so I forced his door opened and told him to get the f* off the van so I could beat the living shizznit out of him. Seeing that I was foaming at the mouth, he tried to close his doors and sped off. I was left with Park Slop mothers staring at me and covering their gingernuts' collective ears from my obscenities.
The moral of the story is that if he had hit me, I'd be dead, and he'd still be driving around, so now I go to 3rd Street or elsewhere to avoid the insanity of Union Street (why is this road two-way? No way two buses could pass each other safely). The other moral of the story is that the next access-an-idiot driver who does that to me will get a U-lock through the neck.
Well said.
Union St. is only two-way in some sections.
What I find mystifying is that the bike lobby is pushing to make MORE streets two-way, such as 8th Avenue, and Prospect Park West, in a belief that this will have some traffic-calming effect rather than creating traffic from more directions and encouraging that bike- and pedestrian-unfriendly maneuver, the U-turn.
I was referring specifically to the two-way section between East of 6th Avenue and up to the park, but you are correct. The one-way parts, though, are not really that bad, especially when crossing the Gowanus canal - lots of space there, so even though drivers fly through that section of Union Street, it feels pretty safe.
I never understood why Union from 8th to Grand Army is two-way - you can barely fit a single bus down that section of Union, and the pedestrian traffic is pretty heavy there.
I was unaware about the lobbying efforts to make some streets two-way, but it's hard for me to judge without knowing where and the specifics. I do know that when they made Columbia Street one-way briefly after the widening in the section near Union Street, it made cycling much easier, but I'm sure it made driving a huge pain.
Overall, the thing most people should be lobbying for is enforcement of the traffic laws. The problem, as was pointed out by a poster here once before, is that "meter maids" are not authorized to ticket cars running red lights, etc., and they apparently make way less than your average traffic cop, so the money-to-(effort/pay) ratio is much greater for ticketing illegally parked cars than going after speeders and illegal turns.
What I've never understood, though, is the brazen nature in which some drivers act like a-holes. It's really not that hard to take down a license plate, figure out where someone lives and slash their tires as retribution. Not that I'm advocating it - just saying. I would advocate that for Access-A-Ride, but the only people it hurts are people who need rides and taxpayers...
Access-Ride personnel think they're ambulance drivers.
in washington heights, where i drive frequently, pedestrians have absolutely no regard for traffic signals. people jaywalk with complete abandon, and it's up to you, the driver, to navigate around them regardless of whether or not you have the right of way.
i follow all the rules, and it scares me shitless that even doing so, i may kill a pedestrian because there is simply no awareness or regard for traffic lights. I'm also scared that if i have to slam on my brakes to avoid some asshole who doesn't care about a walk sign, i may get rear-ended or t-boned by another car.
This sounds terrible, and i may be the bad guy for suggesting it, but i would love it if the NYPD would actually make a point of saying that pedestrians bear responsibility for their own lives. If a driver is sober, not speeding, and has the right of way, and a pedestrian gets hit because they walk in front of the car, the driver should face no penalties, and the NYPD should come right out and explain that. They should also step up ticketing for egregious jaywalking, but we all know that's not going to happen.
I understand your point but if this was the law I know at least three people I would have forgotten the brake for.
Agreed. I would love it if NYPD started ticketing pedestrians for jaywalking. Not when there isn't traffic; I jaywalk all the time across empty streets, which is usually perfectly safe. But there are too many pedestrians jaywalking in traffic, who seem to think they're invincible, strolling across intersections without looking, often with headphones on, talking on their phones, etc. I can't have a ton of sympathy for them when there's an accident.
I'd also like to see timers on the crosswalks, like they have in D.C., so that everyone knows how much time they have to cross an intersection - this would really help pedestrians make safe decisions.
Bicycles won't cause this kind of mayhem.
And the beat goes on...
Under current law, most drivers get a free kill. On their second kill, they are much more likely to get a ticket or a misdemeanor charge. A third kill is where it gets interesting but a little clever judge shopping and you're home by dinner. Sucks to be a pedestrian in this society.
Your correct on all points. As I read your comment I was listening to the greatest hits of Dolly Parton on my ipod as I was shuffling through the newest application releases for my iphone, as I was jotting down (hard copy) a letter to the editor of the Times on how I felt about the closing of Broadway. And then WHAM! Out of the clear blue sky an Access-A-Ride van came speeding down the street and almost ran me over. Mid block no less.
I hear your pain Nanny.
Speed bumps at crosswalks. When a motorhead cares only about his/her "baby"—not pedestrians, not bicyclists—then let their "baby's" wheels, struts, and axel pay the price for their reckless driving.
Are you kidding me?!?!
Cars do not stop on a dime. How is it the drivers fault if pedestrians step out into the street and cross between cars and gets hit?
For all you non drivers out there:
At 30 mph(the speed limit on most NYC streets), a driver needs at least 75 ft to stop safely. 30 ft of thinking distance and 45 ft of breaking distance. Keep that in mind the next time you cross the street.
speed bumps could never happen, even though that would solve a lot of problems with speeding in NYC. Ambulances and buses and so on.