Bumpy night in NYC.
Photo: Andrés Correa Guatarasma / Courtesy
A 65-year-old tourist from Los Angeles and two minors were seriously injured last night when they were run over at various points in NYC, where most drivers of different types of vehicles are violating traffic rules, according to a report.
A new poll by the activist group Transportation Alternatives found that nearly three-quarters (70%) of registered voters in NYC were in favor of reduce speed limits on residential streets, up to 20 mph. Another study that looked at 1,600 drivers in April and May found that 94% of drivers on Staten Island were speeding, 73% in Queens, 52% in The Bronx, 46% in Brooklyn, and 30% in Manhattan.
“Unfortunately, statistics show that it is increasingly dangerous to be a pedestrian or cyclist on the streets of New York City, ”said Democratic state senator and presidential candidate for the borough of Manhattan, Brad Hoylman recently.
But cars are not the only threat: the injured tourist last night suffered a severe head injury after being run over by a scooter on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. As she was crossing West 64th St at Amsterdam Avenue around 7:30 p.m., a man on a black and red scooter crashed into her and then fled the scene, police said.
The woman was in the crosswalk and had the right to cross, according to sources. She was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital, where she was listed as seriously injured. Police are looking for the hit-and-run suspect.
Later in Forest Hills (Queens), a 10 year old boy was crossing the crosswalk alone at 110th Street at Jewel Avenue when hit by a Honda CRV shortly before 9:30 pm, police said.
The driver, a 20-year-old man, remained at the scene. The child was taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital with a severe head injury, in critical condition.
Half an hour later, also in Queens, a 16-year-old on a bicycle was hit by a hit-and-run driver on College Point Avenue. The suspect fled down 15th Street in a blue Nissan with a broken windshield and is being wanted by detectives. The teen was hospitalized with a serious head injury, authorities said, the New York Post reported.
Traffic accidents across the city have killed more people in the past 12 months than during any similar period in the past seven years, Fox News highlighted.
Senator Hoylman is co-sponsoring a bill known as the “Sammy Act,” named after a 12-year-old boy killed by a driver in 2013, and which would give the city the power to set its own speed limits, a authority that the state now has. “New York needs an autonomous government over its own traffic laws”, He said.
“We need everyone in Albany (the state capital) to understand that this is their responsibility,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said last week at a vigil for Matthew Jensen, a city teacher killed on the night of his 58th birthday by a driver who he also fled.
Sammy’s Law represents just one draft of a pack of “Law on Safety and Rights of Accident Victims” that also lower the legal blood alcohol limit, would require drivers to stay within three feet of bicyclists and would allow speed cameras to enforce limits all the time rather than just on weekdays before 10 p.m.
The recent increase in traffic fatalities is not unique to the city. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that deaths from traffic accidents nationwide increased 7% last year.
Last month it was announced that speed limits would be lowered on 10 streets in all five boroughs of NYC in an attempt to prevent pedestrian fatalities that had already risen 58% this year, said Mayor De Blasio, whose “Vision Zero” road safety plan has been long questioned for years.
Additionally, since the pandemic there are more riders – delivery men and walkers – on the streets, and not all of them are legal. The rental and purchase of motorcycles and bicycles has been experiencing a boom in the city for some time, and many of its users they disrespect the traffic lights and the direction of the roads and, in addition, they have taken the sidewalks, further threatening passersby.
NYPD is trying a new tactic to take cracking down on illegal dirt bikes and ATVs in the city, offering $ 100 for information leading to its seizure.
No more Transportation Committee hearings in Albany before session ends.
But we’re NOT giving up on these bills.
All eyes now on Chair @BillMagnarelli of Syracuse to advance Sammy’s Law so NYC can slow down our streets. #VisionZero #SafeStreetsNowNYhttps: //t.co/vsdRI3fWeu
– Transportation Alternatives (@TransAlt) June 4, 2021
Traffic crashes in New York City have killed more people in the last 12 months than in any 12-month period over the last seven years. Https://t.co/kxiSOKSJDm
– Fox5NY (@ fox5ny) June 4, 2021
