Traffic accidents happen all the time in NYC—but why? WHY? In a groundbreaking poll, Marist asked 866 New Yorkers which they thought caused the most accidents in the city: people driving cars, people riding bikes or people walking. Their answers may not shock you! more ›

A 15-year-old boy has died after falling into the East River last night. CBS reports that Justin Smith was playing with his friends near the water around East 102nd and 105th Streets when he fell into river around 8:15 p.m. FDNY and NYPD divers responded and recovered Smith, but he was unable to be revived at Metropolitan Hospital. It's unknown whether the Smith died of drowning or some other cause. more ›

Earlier this morning we received reports that a pedestrian—possibly a school crossing guard—was likely to die after being hit by a truck on the Upper East Side. Now City Room reports that the victim has died, and it turns out it wasn't a crossing guard, but rather a 75-year-old man who was hobbling around on crutches and wearing a reflective vest. A statement from the NYPD press office describes what investigators believe happened at the intersection of First Avenue and 89th Street: more ›

The U.S. Secret Service: When they're not banging prostitutes, they're running people over with their cars. The latest black eye for the scandal-scarred agency occurred yesterday afternoon when an undercover secret service agent fatally struck a woman crossing the Atlantic Avenue at Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn. Victim Maria Tripp, 47, was on her way to pick up her granddaughter from daycare, accompanied by her 19-year-old nephew and 12-year-old daughter, when the driver of a black Chevrolet Impala slammed into her. A witness tells the Daily News, "She went up like 50 feet in the air." more ›

The only motorist on Earth who knows how to drive has sustained a shattering blow to his reputation. Yesterday morning first responders arrived at the scene of a single-car accident on the FDR near East 71st Street to find a Nissan Altima flipped upside down in the middle of the highway. The Post reports the driver was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The tabloid does not publish his name, but a bumper sticker on the back of his car clearly identifies him, with the rhetorical question "Why am I the only one on the planet who knows how to drive?" more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] The NYPD and Coast Guard are searching the water under the Throgs Neck Bridge, which connects the Bronx and Queens, after a worker fell into the water this morning. The unidentified worker fell somewhere near the middle of the bridge around 8 a.m. Sources tell NBC New York he was changing his harness and the platform he was on gave way. more ›

For some reason, photos of trucks stuck under bridges never get old. The latest installment in this harrowing series is brought to us by the driver of a tractor trailer, which collided with an SUV earlier this evening while headed eastbound on the BQE under the Brooklyn Bridge overpass. The FDNY tells us there was some fuel leaking from the truck, but fortunately there were no injuries. more ›

The driver who fatally struck a cyclist on Staten Island last week remains at large, and with each passing day the odds of catching him or her diminish. In this excellent article, the Staten Island Advance reports that an analysis of 15 fatal hit-and-runs on Staten Island from 2005 to 2011 shows that in all 10 of the solved cases, police either had the driver in custody or had a good idea of the driver's identity within 48 hours. In the five cases where the driver wasn't found within 48 hours, no arrests have been made. more ›

An unidentified woman described by the NYPD as "Asian and in her 40s" was fatally run over in Queens this morning around 8 a.m. The FDNY tells us she was declared dead at the scene of the accident, at the intersection of Northern Blvd and Union Street in Flushing. According to the FDNY, she may have been struck by a bus and multiple vehicles, and an NYPD spokesman tells us investigators are still trying to determine if the woman was hit by a bus or another vehicle. more ›

A cyclist is seriously injured today after colliding with a barrier on Varick Street near the Holland Tunnel. DNAinfo reports that the unidentified man was headed south on Varick Street around 2:30 p.m. when he tried to make a right turn onto Dominick Street. But there was a divider in the middle of the street that the cyclist either didn't see or underestimated, and he went down hard on the pavement. more ›

Is Governor Cuomo the new Joe Biden? Or, let's rephrase that, did Governor Cuomo inherit our Veep's drivers? Because for the second time in two days his drivers have gone and hit pedestrians near the home he shares in Westchester with Semi-First Lady Sandra Lee. more ›

Motor vehicles are the number one cause of death for children in NYC, but a new study (below) by Transportation Alternatives finds that children in or around public housing projects are disproportionately at risk. The report, which analyzed Dept. of Motor Vehicle data 1995-2009, says there are child crash "hot spots" in neighborhoods such as East Harlem and the Lower East Side, particularly near the projects. The LES recently saw a 12-year-old girl fatally run over while crossing the infamously dangerous Delancey Street, but the study finds East Harlem has the "worst intersection for child crashes" in all of Manhattan: East 125th Street and Lexington Avenue. more ›

From 2004 to 2011, the number of people who have died or were injured while walking and wearing headphones rose from 16 to 47. The Guardian points us to a new U.S. study, published by Injury Prevention journal, which notes that most victims were men under the age of 30 (around 68% in both cases). 89% of the 116 total incidents occurred in urban areas, with 55% being struck by a train. Looks like these numbers are pointing directly at us, NYC! more ›

A Queens woman is in critical condition after getting run over by a school bus that careened off the road after colliding with another vehicle yesterday afternoon in Jamaica. NBC New York reports that the unidentified woman was walking on the sidewalk when the bus driver "lost control and crashed into a sedan," and swerved up onto the curb, smashed through a small brick fence, and slammed into a house. The pedestrian was pinned under the bus, and officials say she suffered severe leg trauma with a partial amputation of her limbs. more ›

[Update Below] An unidentified man was struck and killed by two drivers while walking on Borinquen Place in Williamsburg earlier this morning around 6 a.m. Details are still emerging about the cause of the crash, but the FDNY confirms that the victim was pronounced D.O.A. and that he was hit twice by two different vehicles. The NYPD press office tells us that at this point, "no criminality is suspected." One local resident sent us the photo below, and describes the grisly scene near South First Street: more ›

A day after four people were injured when a cab jumped the curb in Midtown, another hack hopped the curb in Murray Hill this morning, hitting a man and woman and sending the man through a glass door of a nail salon. Around 9:47 a.m., "The taxi came up on the sidewalk and crushed the window," the owner of Hair and Spa Party told the Post. "It was kind of like a movie. He [the victim] was half in and half out." According to DNAinfo, four people in total were injured, and three were taken to Bellevue Hospital, two of them with serious injuries. more ›

A 73-year-old man was struck and killed by a box truck around noon today as he was attempting to cross Third Avenue at East 22nd St. The Post's NYPD sources say the man, whose name hasn't been released pending family notification, "looked around the corner before trying to cross the avenue." It's unclear as to how much of the street he had crossed, because the story notes that the box truck hit him "just as [he] leaned forward." Police say no criminality is suspected, and "the victim may have been crossing against the light." more ›

A 17-year-old cyclist was struck and killed by a truck in Harlem yesterday. According to a NYPD spokesperson, both the cyclist—who was only identified as a Hispanic male—and the truck were traveling westbound on 125th Street near Fifth Avenue when the truck struck the teenager. "I heard a crack," a witness told DNAinfo, noting that it sounded like "air coming out of him." more ›

Yesterday, we heard the bizarre story of a Long Island man who is suing the fertility clinic which he claims his ex-girlfriend used to store his "stolen" sperm. Joseph Pressil, 36, says his ex Anetria Burnett used the stolen sperm to get herself pregnant after they broke up, and then sued him for child support. But Burnett's lawyer is firing back, telling the Post that Pressil's story of stolen sperm is ludicrous: “He injected her with hormone shots. How could he not know? They were in a relationship and were trying to get pregnant the old-fashioned way, and they couldn't," said Derek Deyon. more ›

Accidents will happen, but not all accidents are actually accidents: a Long Island man is suing the fertility clinic which he claims his ex-girlfriend used to store his "stolen" sperm. Joseph Pressil, 36, says his ex Anetria Burnett used the stolen sperm to get herself pregnant after they broke up, and then sued him for child support. “A gold digger is an understatement. She was trying to get community property and alimony. She’s ruthless...This is more than a nightmare—it’s a horror story," Pressil told the Post. more ›

A gasoline tanker truck carrying 8,500 gallons of fuel crashed into a minivan and burst into flames last night just after 9 p.m. on the New Jersey Turnpike in Carlstadt. NBC New York reports that the accident occurred near exit 18W in the northbound E-ZPass lane of the Turnpike, and that the tanker caught fire soon after the crash. The ensuing fireball could be seen for miles in the November darkness, but should not be interpreted as some sort of apocalyptic symbolic of America's self-destructive addiction to fossil fuels. Here's video: more ›

An 87-year-old Baptist minister and World War II veteran was killed Friday morning after an NYPD patrol vehicle struck him on Eastern Parkway between Dean and Bergen Streets in Brownsville. According to the Post, Theauther Love was taking his morning walk at around 7:20 a.m. when the westbound vehicle hit him. "I saw him this morning. It was a regular day," his widow, Annie Love, told the paper. "He put out the trash and went for his walk. And then…this happened. I will miss him so much." more ›

The family of the cyclist killed by a flatbed truck driver in East Williamsburg last week is having a hard time getting an explanation from the NYPD about why the driver isn't being charged, but the media isn't. Although investigators have not told Mathieu Lefevre's parents that the driver won't face charges, the NYPD press office told us on Monday. And speaking to a Metro reporter, an NYPD spokesperson explained, "There’s no criminality. That’s why they call it an accident." more ›

The cyclist killed in Williamsburg just after midnight Wednesday has been identified by the NYPD as Mathieu Lefevre. The 30-year-old artist, who was originally from Alberta, Canada but had been residing in NYC, was killed by a flatbed truck while riding his bike on Morgan Avenue, at the intersection of Meserole Street. Nicolas Mavrikakis, a Canadian art critic, writes, "I am without words. The news of the death of Mathieu Lefevre, 30, a young artist who promised so much, but who was already a great artist, leaves me totally dazed. A work that was already excited and growing has been suddenly amputated. A truck broke it all in one evening." more ›

It's not as badass as John McClane driving a car into a helicopter in Live Free or Die Hard, but we'll take it. This morning a man allegedly fleeing the scene of an accident ended up crashing his van into a boat in Howard Beach. "He was being chased and came down this block going 80 miles per hour,” Phillip Lynch, commodore of the Howard Beach Motor Boat Club, tells the Queens Chronicle. "He ripped through the entire fence and wound up on the boat." And then the boat sank and crashed into a submarine! (Kidding.) more ›

A motorcyclist was killed early this morning after he lost control of his vehicle on the BQE. According to the NYPD, 48-year-old Nelson Perez was exiting a curve east of Montague Street in Brooklyn at around 12:48 a.m. when his 2001 Yamaha motorcycle careened over the center lane and hit a guardrail, ejecting Perez onto Furman Street below. He was transported to Lutheran hospital where he was later pronounced dead. No criminality is suspected, and the incident is still under investigation. more ›