Report: Wife Scratched Tiger Woods' Face, Chased His SUV; Update: Police Unable To Interview Couple Today
GMA: Adam Lambert, No; Chris Brown, Yes
Two Doors Fall Off AirTrain At JFK
Senate Report: Bush Missed Chance To Catch Bin Laden
Bloomberg Spent $102 Million On Campaign
Are outdated pedicab laws and a dangerous bridge intersection to blame for yesterday morning's pedicab crash in Williamsburg? More details have been released, and it all began when three twenty-somethings from Bushwick met 42-year-old Nicholas Nicometi after a night of partying in Times Square. The licensed pedicab driver offered them a ride back in the early morning hour, which the passengers said was uneventful one until they hit the Williamsburg Bridge (the intersection of the pedestrian pathway and Bedford Avenue between South 5th and 6th is known for being a dangerous one).
Nicometi seemed to have lost control, starting to speed down the slope of the bridge's pedestrian walkway, eventually flying out onto Bedford and colliding with a cab. One passenger, Stephanie Monfort, told the NY Post, "We were telling him to 'Slow down! Slow down! Stop!' But he just kept going and turned right into upcoming traffic. He hit a cab and we all flew out. It was horrible. I'm lucky I am OK." Monfort's boyfriend has two broken wrists from trying to slow the cab by grabbing the railings lining the bridge's path, according to the NY Times. A third passenger, Jessica Mageik, suffered no injuries, and Monfort updated her Facebook profile early this morning, saying, "back from the hospital. everything is ok. in a lot of pain, going to sleep now." The driver was in serious condition as of last night, one witness telling the paper, "He hit his head pretty bad. The whole front wheel was just embedded in his face.”
The Williamsburg Bridge's pedestrian pathway is reserved for pedestrians and cyclists, but the Post points out that "while city rules say pedicabs have to stick to the streets, state laws that allow them on bridges are currently in effect." The city is in the process of drafting new rules, but until then, the law cannot be enforced.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Time to update the rules. Outlaw pedicabs from bridge paths and bridges altogether.
Don't give me that fairness crap. It just doesn't work.
Guess they were unaware that the WBB north side bike path has a wider and much more relaxed descent into Brooklyn.
Either way, these things should not be allowed on bridges.
Sounds like this guy's brakes were not up to the task of stopping a pedicab loaded with passengers. NOT GOOD, especially when in this city you need brakes that can have you stop on a dime. It's no joke when a cab cuts you off to pick up a passenger and you stop inches from the bumper after squeezing the shit out of your front brake.
There were 3 passengers in the pedicab?
So, conservatively, you have about 750 lbs. of weight (passengers, driver, and cab combined), coming down a relatively steep incline, all trying to be stopped by a single V-brake (75% to 90% of all vehicle braking is done at the front wheel btw)?!
That thing didn't have any brakes. Maybe "delayers" or "hesitators", but nothing that would even remotely qualify as brakes.
They didn't have a chance...
Yeah I remember a safety officer explaining car seat belts to people who swore they could "brake" themselves in a car crash or those who felt it was safe to hold an infant in their lap. He had an equation that was weight multiplied by speed of car. So a 10lb baby going 50 miles/hr would be 500lbs...most people agreed they couldn't hold onto that weight in a split instant (if at all). I imagine adding a steep incline would maximize this too--any physics majors out there? I also think a front brake would cause the entire contents of the pedicab to overturn--not sure if that's they are made though.
most pedicabs have a rear hydraulic disc brake taken from a snowmobile.
You try to make a panic stop by relying on just your rear brake, and let me know how you make out. :)
First thing that occurred to me yesterday was all that weight. But what I wondered about was how the heck he got all that weight UP the bridge. He must have been in great physical condition.
Coming home at 7:30 in the morning after a night of partying I have a feeling the passengers felt no pain after the crash.
The driver had the front wheel embedded in his face? You know that had to hurt.
This pedi driver showed poor judgement. But as a 42-year-old pedi-cab driver, I bet he has a long track record of bad judgement. snap.
Is the taxi that was struck okay?
Johnny and Stephanie are my old roomates. They owe me $880 and have been dodging me for months. Hopefully they are ok, and will be able to make it into court on July 7th.
Karma?
this is inappropriate to post on here. you broke your verbal lease and gave us one day notice to move out. we could have sued you for that.
While I truly have empathy for your injuries, and hope that there has been no damage done that you will not fully recover from...
You owe me money, yes I gave you a days notice, and on that particular day I paid you in full, in advance, for the entire following month of April, leaving you with the entire months rent covered, and an empty room to show. I even drove you to the bank. Basically I made things easier for you in terms of moving someone in there. I could have very easily bounced on you. You also agreed to by my television and some furniture, that rather than paying for, you simply kept.
You could not have sued me, because I fulfilled my monetary obligation to you in advance, in good faith that you would pay me back, under the guise that you're good people who'd honor such things. I still have hopes that this matter will be settled like adults, and that we can shake hands when all is said and done. Otherwise we'll talk in court. I have no other way of contacting you, your cell phone service is pretty much always turned off, and you do not respond to email, it sucks having to resort to message boards...
seeYa
ha ha. hopefully he can still count out that money with those wrists.
That's not funny, I busted my hand up real bad this past winter. Still hurts me sometimes... Especially w/ this rainy weather.
Pedicabs - and anyone else for that matter - should be allowed to use the bridge. How else are people supposed to easily get onto and off of a fucking island? However, pedicabs should have minimum safety standards - to prevent accidents due to inadequate braking ability.
Yes. I encountered one huffing his way up the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn early morning this past Saturday. No one else was on the bridge except for us. No harm, no foul.
This is an issue about adequate brakes and load capacities of these pedicabs, not whether or not they belong on bridges.
Who takes a Pedicab from Times Square to Williamsburg?
God scene for a Peter Sellers Movie.
Amen, Cybert. Seriously, everyone else on here is arguing about the physics or the merits of having pedicabs, but nobody took a moment to think of the obvious question: who the hell takes a pedicab from Times Square to Brooklyn? And for that matter, who the hell hangs out in Times Square?
Why aren't pedicabs straight up illegal? They are dangerous and obnoxious not to mention functionally limited to near uselessness.
It's absurd that these guys aren't being arrested.