car accident nyc

Published on: February 15, 2022

A bad start for the new NYC DOT

26 people died in traffic crashes in NYC this month according to the NYPD. This is a 63% increase compared to January 2021 when 16 people died in auto accidents in the city. This is the highest number of car accident fatalities since Vision Zero started in February 2014. 28 people died in car accidents in January 2013 and 21 in January 2014. After that the number of car accident deaths in January remained below 20 with respectively 13, 17, 18, 11, 19 and 19 fatalities in January 2015, 2016, 2017. 2018. 2019 and 2020. Among the victims were a 99 year old holocaust survivor and a teenager struck by a school bus on her way to school. After this horrible accident, Mayor Adams said the NYPD would crack down on drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians and the new Transportation Commissioner, Ydanis Rodriguez said “At DOT the team is working 24/7 to come out with a different way of how we redesign the streets, reorganize the signal system, everything we have in our agency to address this epidemic”. January numbers however show a different story: less tickets were issued for failure to yield in January 2022 than in January 2021 and among the 3,000 to 6,000 reckless drivers who have been listed in the new “Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program” managed by the DOT, only 97 took the mandated driving class so far.

Additionnally, last Thursday, a DOT crew tried to dismantle a popular Open Street on Willoughby Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn without informing the community. Residents immediately reacted and protested with anger. As a result the same day at night, DOT workers were reinstalling the Open Street signs that had been removed hours earlier. The residents were extremely surprised by the DOT reaction as the Open Street experience on Willoughby Avenue was very popular and the first open street to receive “Light Touch” treatment by the DOT such as planters, signage, curb extension and other safety amenities. The dismantlement came a few days after the DOT announced that it was postponing the creation of a well needed pedestrian lane on the Queensboro bridge.

This is definitely not a good start for the DOT.

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Published on: February 15, 2022

Speed cameras in NYC, are they fair?

By GGCRBHS&M

Speed cameras in New York City have lead to a decrease in crashes but some drivers says they are an unfair way to get revenue from predominantly communities of colors.

After a recent article in ProPublica looked at Chicago traffic camera tickets and found out that it was disproportionately ticketing Black and Latino drivers, Street blog NY investigated the situation in New York and found that while speed cameras were equally located all over the city, areas where streets had not been redesigned to be safer were the areas where the most tickets were issued. These areas are where communities of color reside.

East New York zip code 11208 which is an area where 54% of the population is black and 59% of households do not have a car, cameras recorded 187,456 speed tickets, the highest in New York City. That’s more than 500 tickets a day.

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Published on: February 11, 2022

2021 Traffic fatalities in New York at their highest since Vision zero started

By GGCRBHS&M

According to the most recent NYPD collision statistics, a total of 254 people died in motor vehicle accidents in New York City last year. Among them were 108 pedestrians, 15 cyclists, 33 vehicle passengers and 98 motor vehicle drivers. Before Vision Zero started in 2014, 286 people died in auto accidents in 2013. Then the number of deaths went down to 250 in 2014, 235 in 2015, 223 in 2016. It reached its lowest in 2018 with 199 traffic accident fatalities and then gradually increased to 214 deaths in 2019 and 239 in 2020.

While pedestrians remain the category of road users recording the highest number of deaths of all road users with 108 of them dying last year, the numbers that caused the total traffic fatalities in New York City to be so high last year were the record number of motorists and passengers fatalities. 98 motorists died and 33 passengers were killed in car accidents last year compared to 84 and 23 in 2013 before Vision Zero started. Distracted driving, speeding and recklessness are the causes of most of these fatalities.

Traffic accidents injuries remain lower than usual but however a little bit higher than last year with a total of 50,617 people injured in car accidents in 2021 compared to respectively 43,601, 60,234, 60,646, 58,990, 58,526, 51,255, 50,886 and 54,818 in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. A diminution of the day to day activity in the city because of the ongoing Covid19 crisis may be a factor behind these lower than usual numbers.

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Published on: February 9, 2022

99 year old holocaust survivor fatally mowed by reckless driver in NYC

By GGCRBHS&M

99 year old Jack Mikulincer was crossing the street in his electric wheelchair when he was fatally struck by a car. Mikulincer who survived two wars, the Nazi invasion of Hungary and the Holocaust was mowed down by one of his neighbors as he was taking his weekly trip to the synagogue. The driver who was identified as 52 year old Pyotr Yadgarov, was driving his BMW SUV west on Oriental Boulevard in Manhattan Beach when he struck Jack Mikulincer who was crossing north near Coleridge Street, right next to his house.

The area is residential and the BMW driver lives just four blocks away from the victim. In such areas in NYC, the speed limit is 25 MPH.

Yadgarov who was not charged, has a history of speeding and recklessness. The plates of the car show a total of 10 speed camera tickets and 4 other tickets for running red lights since 2016. Last year only, the car was caught 6 times speeding in school zones. Additionnally there are no pedestrian crosswalks on Oriental Boulevard, making it even more dangerous for pedestrians to get to the other side of the Boulevard.

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Published on: February 3, 2022

Another pedestrian killed by a reckless driver in Brooklyn

By GGCRBHS&M

A Brooklyn woman is the 12th pedestrian to die in a car accident in New York City since the beginning of this year. In a very graphic video the 64 year old pedestrian is seen walking West on the North sidewalk of Foster Avenue. As she arrives at the intersection of East 17th Avenue, she waits for the light to turn green and then proceeds to walk on the snowy street. At the same time, the driver of a grey Chevy makes a right turn from Foster onto 17th Street, does not yield or slows down and slams into the pedestrian.

The driver, a 57 year old woman, stayed at the scene of the accident and so far was not charged. The victim was rushed to the hospital where she died.

While the video clearly shows that the driver did not yield to the pedestrian, the snow that had not been proprely removed from the intersection made the area even more dangerous to navigate for pedestrians and vehicles.

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Published on: January 28, 2022

2021 had the most car accident fatalities in NYC since 2013

By GGCRBHS&M

2021 was the deadliest year of Vision Zero with 273 people dying in car accidents in New York City. According to a recent report by “Transportation Alternatives”, the number of deaths in 2021 represent a 33% increase of fatalities compared to 2018 which was the safest year of the Vision Zero program.

Hit and run accidents leading to critical injuries increased by 45% compared to a year before and doubled compared to 2018 while arrests of hit and run drivers decreased by 12% compared to 2018. Additionally, only 3% of hit and run cases got solved.

Transportation Alternatives also studied data from crashmapper and found that the share of SUV’s involved in accidents resulting in pedestrian deaths increased by 42% between the first term and the second term of mayor de Blasio. Big vehicles decrease visibility and are especially a danger to cyclists and pedestrians.

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Published on: January 26, 2022

New New York Mayor, Eric Adams, pledges to make streets safer and reduce car accident injuries and deaths in the city

By GGCRBHS&M

Last year, NYC Car accident fatalities reached their highest level since 2013 and the carnage continued in January. After a 15 year old girl was killed by a school bus in Brooklyn last week, (see previous blog) Mayor Adams told New Yorkers that he plans to make the city safer by redesigning 1,000 intersections and use the NYPD to crack down on reckless drivers. Adams said that cyclists and drivers who failed to yield to pedestrians will be ticketed as well as drivers who run red lights or fail to stop at stop signs. The NYPD will also crack down on drivers and cyclists who do not yield to pedestrians while crossing intersections without stop signs. This new regulation is supposed to make safer around 1,200 intersections that have no signalization in the city.

Adams held his press conference at the intersection of Caton Ave and Coney Island Avenue and said 26 people suffered injuries in car accidents at this particular intersection and that 5 other people died in auto accidents on Coney Island Avenue. The mayor wants to focus on improving intersections in the city and make them safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Previous statistics indicate that most accidents resulting in injuries or deaths in New York City occurred at intersections. Therefore intersections have to be safer.

The mayor pledged that by the end of 2022, 1,000 intersections in New York City will be improved. These improvements include the addition of 100 raised pedestrian crossings and 100 bike corrals at intersections. Some parking places where big vehicles reduce visibility for pedestrians will be removed as well.

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Published on: January 21, 2022

New York City streets remain dangerous for pedestrians

By GGCRBHS&M

New York City streets remain deadly for pedestrians with reckless drivers continuing to create mayhem and killing people as the below frightening surveillance video of a near miss accident shows.

Over less than a week, two pedestrian died and one was critically injured. On Monday morning, 15 year old Antonia Zalutovska was rolled over by a school bus who failed to yield to her (see previous blog). A few days before, on Thursday last week, one pedestrian died and another one suffered life threatening injuries in two separate reckless car accidents.

Unlicensed driver kills pedestrian in Queens

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Published on: January 13, 2022

NYC Pedestrian deaths at their lowest and motorist deaths at their highest for November

By GGCRBHS&M

18 people died (8 pedestrians, 8 motorists, 1, cyclist, 1 passenger) and 4,434 were injured in NYC crashes in November 2021 compared to respectively 28 and 4,039 in 2020. The total number of auto fatalities was also lower than in October 2021 during which 28 people died in crashes in the city. While the pandemic changed the way people are commuting in the city, the number of traffic deaths which had exploded in November 2020, is back to a level similar to the last 3 previous years, hovering around 20. Globally, over the last 8 years, the NYC traffic fatalities trendline is declining, however it is the first time since last May that monthly traffic fatalities are actually below this trendline. (Click on graphs for full view)

Pedestrians and motorists represented most of the deaths with 8 of each category dying in crashes in November. Additionnally one cyclist and one passenger also died in crashes during that month. In November 2020, the high number of deaths was mostly caused by a much higher number of cyclists (6) and pedestrians (13) deaths, while the number of motorist and passenger deaths were lower and similar to November 2021 (6 and 1). November 21 was also a better month than October 21 during which 8 motorists, 5 passengers, 3 cyclists and 12 pedestrians lost their lives in crashes.

NYC Auto accident injuries remained lower than usual last November with 4,434 crash injuries compared to respectively 4,039, 4,733, 4,943, 4,892, 5,014, 4,357, 4,222 and 4,692 in November 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. Before the pandemic, the monthly number of car accident injuries was usually above 4500 during the month of November. During the pandemic it dropped lower and as a result the trendline which was previously slightly increasing is now slightly decreasing.

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Published on: November 30, 2021

NY State Trooper causes car accident mayhem after opening fire on RFK bridge (Triborough bridge) in hunt for stolen car

By GGCRBHS&M

Thankfully nobody was seriously injured in an accident involving multiple cars after a NY State trooper opened fire on two suspects fleeing in a stolen car on the RFK bridge that was packed with holiday travelers. The bridge was closed for hours creating major traffic delays.

The hunt for the car, a 2021 Acura Sedan, started the day before when the owner of the car reported to the police that the vehicle was stolen. On Sunday afternoon, the owner of the Acura contacted the police again and told them that his tracking app was showing the vehicle on the RFK bridge. The car was spotted by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority officials who contacted the NY State Police.

According to a witness the State troopers were able to localize the car and get close to it. One of the troopers knocked on the window of the stolen car. After a while the driver opened it and the officer grabbed him by the neck. The driver took off, hitting another car that struck the trooper. The trooper then opened fire on the fleeing suspects who hit multiple other cars as they were fleeing from the police. Two people were hurt including the State Trooper and the thieves were arrested in Harlem after they got off the bridge.

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