According to new data released by the NYPD, the biggest cause of car crashes in August of this year was "Driver Inattention/Distraction" caused by people being unable to resist looking at their phone to find out that the girl they used to wait tables with in high school is engaged. 11% of the 16,784 accidents (or 1,877 crashes) were due to people not paying attention while driving, while "Following Too Closely" was the next highest cause (812), along with "Failure To Yield Right of Way" (629). Councilwoman Jessica Lappin sponsored the law that made the information public, and tells the Daily News, "I still see people talking on their phone and texting while driving when they are stopped at a red light." more ›

Local tabloids have been bemoaning the supposedly dangerous conditions on the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, where construction work has tossed cyclists and pedestrians into congested pathways. And now comes more fuel for the fire, with reports that a man was dragged over the Brooklyn Bridge by some psychopathic cyclist motorist. When will DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan come to her senses and ban cars from the East River bridges? more ›

Evan Potts, who was accused of killing Ian Sharinn with his Nissan Altima in a road rage incident in Long Beach in 2009, was acquitted of second-degree manslaughter charges. However Potts, who was 22 at the time of the incident, was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, and faces four years in prison at his sentencing on August 16, ABC 7 reports. At the time, a witness described that Potts ran over Sharinn "like a cat in the road…I heard his head rattling in the undercarriage." more ›

In yet anther example of why we don't drive, a retired corrections officer opened fire on a man after a road rage-induced scuffle near JFK. The Daily News reports that 66-year-old Jose Aponte had been arguing with a man in a "green Toyota camera" when the two pulled over on South Conduit Avenue and 155th street. After "the man slugged the former officer and signaled that he had a gun in his pants," Aponte pulled out his own gun and opened fire. more ›

Although a jury found two NYPD officers accused of macing, pistol-whipping and baton-beating a Bronx man during a road rage incident in 2008 guilty of official misconduct, they've been unable to reach a verdict on the far more serious charges of gang assault. Officers Michelle Anglin, 40, and Kollen Robinson, 27, who allegedly beat spoken word poet Marlon Smith so severely that he had to get 25 staples to hold together the three gashes in his skull, were found guilty of trying to cover up the incident, the jury couldn't agree on the incident itself. And so Judge Nicholas Lacovetta has ordered a retrial, the Daily News reports. more ›

In August 2008, "aspiring poet" Marlon Smith was allegedly beaten, pistol whipped and maced by two off-duty female cops during a road rage incident in the Bronx. He claims Michelle Anglin, 37, and Koleen Robinson, 24, became enraged at Smith for leaving the driver’s door of his Suburban open, almost scraping Robinson's SUV. An angry verbal exchange quickly escalated, and he says the policewomen approached his vehicle and Anglin allegedly blasted him with pepper spray. After the ensuing beatdown, Smith had to get 25 staples to hold together the three gashes in his skull. The officers did not need medical attention, but yesterday Anglin testified that she was the victim. more ›

Talk about bus rage! A Brooklyn woman reportedly got so enraged after her B74 bus driver swerved to avoid hitting a dog on the street that she cursed and pummeled him while screaming "You should have fucking killed the dog." more ›

The man who punched a woman over a parking space argument, putting her into a coma, made bail yesterday. Queens electrician Oscar Fuller, who has been previously arrested for assault and drug possession, posted the $100,000 bail to get out of jail for now. But some politicians think defendants like Fuller are too dangerous to be allowed out on bail. more ›

Yesterday, we heard the grisly story of parking space rage gone too far: petite Bronx woman Lana Rosas ended up in a coma after a vicious confrontation with electrician Oscar Fuller over a parking spot. Rosas was holding the space on East 14th Street for her boyfriend, and refused to let Fuller park his van; the argument escalated, and Fuller punched Rosas "in the face with so much force that the woman flew off her feet," according to court papers. But in court yesterday, Fuller's lawyer argued that he was just acting in self-defense: "There is nothing to suggest my client intended to inflict serious injury. At most, the charge should be misdemeanor assault." more ›

A Bronx woman who was standing in a parking space on East 14th Street in order to save the spot for her boyfriend is now in a coma after an argument over parking turned violent. Police tell the Post electrician Oscar Fuller became unhinged last Friday night around 11:40 p.m. when Lana Rosas, a petite 25-year-old, refused to let him park his white minivan in the space. The argument escalated, and Fuller punched Rosas "in the face with so much force that the woman flew off her feet," according to court papers. Now she's got permanent brain damage. more ›

A Department of Sanitation worker faces a number of charges after a bat-swinging road rage incident on Staten Island over the weekend. 42-year-old Joseph Pasquale, who has been with the department for 18 years, was driving his white Ford pickup truck on Staten Island Saturday morning when he allegedly cut off an unidentified 22-year-old woman. In response, she reportedly honked her horn. An outrage! Pasquale certainly wasn't going to stand for that level of disrespect—especially not with his 5-year-old daughter in the cab with him. And he allegedly keeps a baseball bat handy for just such teachable moments. more ›

Road rage never pays off: An off-duty firefighter got into a shouting match with a cab driver while on an Upper West Side street...and he also managed to get arrested for drunk driving. According to the Daily News, "Sean Farrell, 36, was driving a 2005 Ford Explorer north on Amsterdam Ave. at 3:15 a.m. when a yellow cab pulled in front of him near W. 79th St... When the vehicles stopped at a red light, Farrell began screaming at the cabbie - which caught the attention of a passing cop, police said." The police then determined he was drunk and charged him with DWI; the FDNY has suspended him for 30 days without pay from his position at Engine Co. 250 in Parkville, Brooklyn. more ›

That off-duty cop accused of pointing a gun at a bike rider who rapped on his window during a traffic altercation? He claims it was all just a big misunderstanding. Sources tell the tabloids that Officer Joe Carrasco, a 29-year-old cop from the 28th Precinct, is saying he didn't shove a gun in cyclist Ryan Stepka's face, he was merely removing his police ID from his wallet! But you can forgive Stepka his confusion—only a highly trained NYPD officer is qualified to tell the difference between a wallet and a gun. Oh, wait. more ›

The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating an incident involving an allegedly pistol-flashing off-duty cop and a pissed-off cyclist on Bleecker Street Saturday night. Bike rider Ryan Stepka, 36, was pedaling home around 11:30 p.m. when a driver in a Volkswagen with heavily tinted windows almost sideswiped him. Stepka says he banged on the window to alert the driver to his presence, but the car continued to force him to the curb as they approached a stoplight. "That’s when I got off my bike and approached the window to talk to the guy," Stepka tells the Post. And when the window rolled down, shit got real: more ›

An MTA Bridges and Tunnels division officer shot a man during a fight that ensued after a car accident on the Major Deegan yesterday morning. Officer Edward Aiken was on his way to work at Randall's Island when he was rear-ended by another car in the South Bronx, causing his car to hit a guardrail. A heated argument led to fisticuffs, and Aiken was outnumbered by the four passengers in the other vehicle. So he introduced them to his little friend. more ›

Imze (Emzo) Yildiz, a Turkish immigrant who became a citizen just three weeks ago, is charged with felony assault after a Staten Island road rage incident with an off-duty cop left him with two black eyes and nine stitches above his eyebrow. But the cop, Officer Anthony Egan, was reportedly whisked away from the scene Tuesday morning with no charges or injuries, even though Emzo and at least one witness say Egan was the only one who threw punches. Welcome to America, Emzo! more ›

A bike messenger flew into a rage yesterday after getting clipped by a limo on 6th Avenue in Chelsea. As the awesomely-named Perzeus Forte, 20, was being led away in handcuffs after allegedly assaulting driver Darr Mohammed, he told the Post, "He hit me and kept going. I'm sick of this." The incident occurred around 1 p.m. after Mohammed grazed Forte near West 19th Street; the limo kept going but stopped at a red light at West 20th Street. But because of the stoplight, Forte was able to ditch his bike and dash up to the limo. "He was running like he was possessed. I just couldn't believe how mad he was," Mohammed says. more ›

Yesterday an MTA supervisor caught a bus operator talking on his cell phone, holding a water bottle and driving, all at the same time. But instead of commending the driver for his unstoppable multi-tasking skillz, supervisor Joseph Merwin played the heavy, ordering the driver to pull over and confronting him. That's when bus operator Johnny Miller, 37, of Brooklyn, reportedly blew a fuse. more ›

A thug in Williamsburg was incited to violence when a man brushed up against his car earlier this month. Dominck Auricchio, a 49-year-old from Manhattan, got out of his car near the Brooklyn Brewery and yelled to his 30-year-old victim, "I'm going to kill you!" reports the Post's police blotter. As he was screaming he punched the man in the face. Worst of all, he was wearing a metal ring! After the beating, which took place on North 11th Street near Wythe Avenue at 9:55 p.m., he fled in his vehicle, but police tracked him down and arrested him on charges of assault Thursday. His victim was taken to the hospital where he required 11 stitches for a cut on his face. New York: Still the #1 city for meathead road rage! more ›

The brazen drive-by shooting in Williamsburg yesterday apparently started as a dispute between motorists. A gunman in a green Nissam Maxima fired at 38-year-old Ramon Blas, hitting the victim once in the side as he sat inside his car sometime after 2:30 pm. Wounded, Blas managed to drive his gray BMW SUV a few blocks before colliding with a parked car at the corner of Lorimer and Ten Eyck streets. He then "staggered into the driver's compartment of a slowly moving UPS van," the Post reports. The UPS driver ran into a nearby packaging store, shouting: "Someone just got shot inside my truck," according to the Daily News. more ›

The Daily News adds a new detail to the "road rage" arrests of Dominique Sharpton and Kathy Jordan—the daughter and ex-wife of the Reverend Al Sharpton. Apparently 23-year-old Dominque was pulled over by cops after allegedly driving through a red light, so she called her mother who "rushed to the scene to find Dominique in the back of a police car, Sharpton's attorney said." The women argued with the cops, eventually being taken to the stationhouse and charged with "disorderly conduct and obstruction of governmental administration." Their lawyer said, "It seems they were arrested simply because they asked why the ticket was being given." The Reverend Al, aside from his Tweets yesterday, remains quiet on the issue. more ›

According to the Post, the ex-wife and daughter of the Reverend Al Sharpton "were arrested [Friday] night after berating a pair of Harlem cops who pulled them over for running a red light in the wrong lane to get around their slow-moving, unmarked cruiser." The incident began at West 110th Street and 8th Avenue, when Dominique Sharpton, allegedly frustrated by the unmarked cruiser, "honked her horn and tailgated the vehicle" and then "furiously swerved across the double yellow line and sped through a red light to get past the cop car." more ›

Cyclist Armando Cruz was arrested after throwing a bottle through the window of a NYC bus, raining shards of glass onto the driver. Cruz had been riding down Flushing Avenue in Bushwick when police officers ordered him to pull over due to his "unsafe manner" of biking. He attempted to pedal away, but was cut off by the bus; he then threw his bottle through the bus driver's window. That must have been one hell of a throw, one hell of a heavy bottle, or one hell of a cheap bus window. Cruz was charged with "assault, menacing, and criminal mischief." more ›

The pitched street battle between cyclists and drivers (and pedestrians) just won't let up! Cyclist Anna Letitia Mumford says that she was punched in the face by a driver yesterday during her evening commute in Brooklyn. Here's her story:

I had just crossed the Manhattan Bridge and was biking south on the bike path on Jay Street. The traffic was backed up, but the bike lane was open. Right in front of me, a car peeled out of the traffic and began to cruise up the bike lane. At Willoughby, the light was red so the car stopped. I tapped on the trunk to let the driver know that I was trying to pass. more ›

A Staten Island driver is due in court at the end of the month to face assault charges after a road rage incident with a cyclist. Unlike Fox News staffer Don Broderick, whom the Manhattan DA let off the hook despite allegations that he drove with a cyclist clinging to his hood, 27-year-old Michael Graziuso was taken away in handcuffs after this altercation, which took place at a busy Staten Island intersection on the morning of July 8th. The confrontation was sparked after cyclist Gregory DeRespino, 48, stopped in the bike lane at a red light at Capodanno Boulevard and Seaview Avenue, making it difficult for several cars lined up behind him to make a right turn. more ›

Mark St. Pierre, the driver who injured 13 people and fatally ran over a father walking with his son in the Bronx last month, has been formally indicted on a charge of second-degree murder, and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. He appeared in court yesterday to plead not guilty to 50 counts related to the appalling road rage rampage, which resulted in 6-year-old Sebastian Colon seeing his father Miguel die before his eyes. The two had been crossing East Gun Hill Road in Baychester when St. Pierre sped toward them, leaving Colon just enough time to shove his son out of the way. A witness tells the Post that St. Pierre, who had just had a fight with his ex-girlfriend at Chuck E. Cheese, was doing "at least" 85 mph when he slammed into Colon. After the argument, he sped off in his 2008 Infiniti, crashed into two parked cars before killing Colon, and then proceeded to hit several more cars until his vehicle was too wrecked to continue. At the arraignment yesterday, Colon's widow told the Daily News, "My heart dropped when I saw him. To me, I am staring at an animal." more ›

Watch out, meat heads: While administering street justice to cyclists who dare touch your precious vehicle, keep in mind you may be photographed for posterity on the internets. And that photo may lead to other photos, like this one here, depicting one Gus Gonzalez, who Streetsblog believes is the man who allegedly assaulted a cyclist during a road rage on Ninth Avenue incident last month. A lawyer used the license plate seen in the photos track down the vehicle's owner; it's registered to Flushing resident Laura DiSpirito, whose Facebook page (since made private) shows her on the beach with her husband "Gus." We'd know that gut anywhere. more ›

We've heard about driver vs. bicyclist fights before, but Streetsblog has a really unusual one. Unusual because the bicyclist was charged with criminal mischief for slapping the side of the SUV! From Streetsblog:

[Ray] Bengen, 63, was riding down the Ninth Avenue bike lane on May 21 when he came across the Ford Excursion you see in this photo (curb weight: 7,190 lbs). A long-time city cyclist, Bengen had a green light and wasn't quite sure what to make of the vehicle in front of him. The car wasn't moving and its brake lights were off.

AutoVantage released its annual survey of the Best/Worst Road Rage Cities in the country and New York is at the top of the heap, baby! After polling 2,500 respondents in 25 major markets, NYC was found to be the least courteous, followed by Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Atlanta and Minneapolis/St. Paul (the more courteous cities were Portland, OR, Cleveland, Baltimore, Sacramento and Pittsburgh); Miami, which was the worst city for four years, slipped from the top five of least courteous cities! According to the consulting company which commissioned the survey, "New Yorkers were most likely to wave their fists or arms. They were most likely to lay on the horn and they were most likely to make some sort of obscene gesture." As for what respondents think causes road rage, they cited things like "Bad/careless driving, such as cutting others off, speeding, tailgating, talking on cell phones, making obscene gestures and not using proper signals," "Traffic problems, accidents, poor road conditions or construction" and "Inconsiderate, disrespectful, selfish drivers who think they own the road." more ›

Some followup to a bicyclist's accusations that an SUV driver rammed into him in Central Park, which Gawker first reported: The Daily News reports that the police are investigating Brian Dooda's claims that he was "dragged more than 200 feet" by Don Broderick's SUV, adding, "Sources said a detective spoke to Dooda Tuesday but it was not yet known if charges would be filed against Broderick." The News, of course, notes Broderick's employment history—he's a "former New York Post reporter who now works for Rupert Murdoch's" Fox News—but notes the 53-year-old driving record is clean. But now Gawker says Broderick was once suspended for "assaulting a Fox co-worker...roughly ten years ago in the Fox newsroom." Streetsblog says the city's policy of keeping cars in Central Park's loop is to blame (the city has reduced car hours a little), "Until officials summon the small measure of political will needed to return the loop road to its rightful users, it will continue to be a contested street to which both drivers and park users believe they have a righteous claim. And the next Brian Dooda may not be so lucky." And Dooda offered one idea for Broderick's punishment to the News: "He has to ride a bike through Manhattan in rush hour." more ›