A man who was allegedly drunk crashed on Hylan Boulevard between Bryant and Bancroft Avenues during rush hour. With his kids in the minivan, the Staten Island Advance reports the driver "lost control" and "hit...a Verizon FIOS employees...sending his shoes and clipboard sailing through the air." Then the van "veered into the opposite lanes and hit a blue 2005 Mazda sedan head-on, which slammed into a black 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo sport utility vehicle."......

If you thought noticed a group of bicyclists playing dead on 6th Avenue near 33rd Street, your eyes weren't fooling you. Time's Up led a Bike Lane Action to "dramatize the fatal last moments of David Smith’s ride up 6th Avenue." Smith was killed when a passenger in a truck, parked in the bike lane, opened a door; Smith was knocked off his bike and into the path of a truck. A Time's Up......

The pedestrian, bicyclist and sensible transportation advocacy group Transportation Alternatives has just launched a new website, Crash Maps: CrashStat 2.0, which maps intersections and streets where pedestrians and bicyclists have been hit by vehicles. It's an updated version of their previous map, and when the information is presented different depending on how closely you zoom into the map. For instance, at one level, it shows crashes (those with injuries as well as the fatal......

It's no shock that many drivers aren't totally on the ball when driving, but it turns out that one in three New York drivers multi-task in their cars. According to a Hunter College study (PDF) conducted at 50 intersections in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, of the over 3,000 drivers observed, 23% were talking on a cellphone, 5.7% were smoking, 4.5% were drinking, 3.1% were drinking, and 1.7% were grooming. Time to quote Rihanna:......

Claiming he was panicked, the driver who fatally struck a mother of four in Staten Island Tuesday night now faces felony charges of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. But the law is a strange thing. The Staten Island Advance reports that if 19-year-old Ibraim Qoku "hadn't run away, he could have ended up with nothing more than a speeding ticket." Qoku was driving 50MPH, 20 MPH over the speed limit, on Hylan Boulevard......

Last night, a woman crossed Hylan Boulevard between Fingerboard Road and Linwood Avenue in Grasmere was fatally struck by a speeding car. The police believe the vehicle was a black Mercedes two-door coupe, 2001 or newer, with a damaged front end. Maria Alvarenga had finished her day's work at the Naomi Nails and Skincare salon and was crossing the street to catch a bus. Pizzeria owner Robert Hansen told the Staten Island Advance, "I heard......

There were a number of deaths and injuries from incidents all over the city early Sunday morning. The first was a collision between a Toyota and BMW on Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island. The Toyota's driver, 29-year-old Paul Vinin, died while the BMW's driver Jolyn SIlva, was critically injured. Silva's passenger, 17-year-old Paulina Vivirito, had minor injuries. The Staten Island Advance, which said that Toyota "t-boned the BMW", reports that both Vinin and Silva had......

Yesterday, Transportation Alternatives held a rally at City Hall to draw attention to the recently increasing numbers of pedestrian fatalities on city streets. Last year, 163 pedestrians died, a 4% increase over 2005, and just this past weekend, four pedestrians were killed by vehicles. Relatives and friends of victims joined TA to demand that the city to make streets safer for pedestrians and "strengthen laws against motorists who kill or injure pedestrians" (Metro). Watch......

Tomorrow at 3PM, Transportation Alternatives will be holding an emergency rally to demand that Mayor Bloomberg improve the streets for pedestrians. From TA:The Problem: In 2006, over 10,000 pedestrians were hit by cars and trucks in New York City. One hundred sixty-six were killed. The City's pedestrian safety efforts are inadequate. Where is Mayor Bloomberg? He has spoken out about transfats, gun violence and smoking. If killing a pedestrian with a car was considered......

Yesterday the Department of Transportation installed the first countdown pedestrian signal at the intersection of Coney Island Avenue and Kings Highway. Here's how the city explains the timer: The pedestrian countdown signals are the same size as the existing pedestrian signal head, but feature a dual display - the traditional "Walking Man" and "Hand" display, and a pedestrian interval countdown display. The countdown feature is programmed to start at the beginning of the "flashing hand"......

We got an email from the Straphangers yesterday, who directed us to check out the MTA's NYC Bus Rapid Transit Study. The MTA is looking to identify "corridors in the five boroughs that have BRT potential," and there will be public information sessions starting next week in all five boroughs. So far, the MTA is considering fifteen corridors:Bronx - Fordham Road/Pelham Parkway - Grand Concourse - Webster Avenue + 3rd Avenue Brooklyn - Flatbush Avenue......

ATM skimming or phishing - where people try to get your bank accounts and PIN numbers by adding secret readers to ATMS - is nothing new. But it seems like some robbers have taken it to a new level - some robbers have created fake keypads in addition to the bank card slots! Did you see the local news segments about this? They look really real! The robbers have taken $100,000 from 50 Washington Mutual......

There are a lot of hit-and-run incidents in the city, but it seems like there are have been a lot more than normal. Could it be holiday traffic? Darker evenings? Or people are just more careless? A Brooklyn man was killed in Clinton Hill, leaving a restaurant where he watched soccer (the NY Times reports that Lucino Galindo had said if he died, he would want a soccer ball in his coffin). But there are......