From The Villager, Aug. 6:

With tree memorial, keeping son's memory alive
A tree grows as a memorial in Union Square, near E. 17 St. and Broadway.

The well-tended tree and blooming bed commemorates Kyle Larson, a 20-year-old New York University student who was rushing to turn in a term paper when he was fatally hit by a delivery truck in November 2012.

For his parents, Nancy and Robert Larson, making the journey every weekend from their home in Manhasset, Long Island, to the city to take care of the tree and the memorial has become a way to keep their son's memory alive.

"We come in on Sunday mornings because it gives us a chance just to remember him for a few quiet moments," Nancy Larson said on Sun., Aug. 2, seated with her husband at the new pedestrian plaza near where the accident happened. "He's always in our thoughts — there isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t think of him countless times."

The Larsons chose this particular tree, in front of McDonald's and the former Heartland Brewery, because a few days after the accident, the NY Longboard Association held an event to honor Kyle, an avid skateboarder, who had been riding his longboard the day of the crash.

The association designated that tree because it had been the closest to where the incident occurred. The Larsons had found out about the memorial through Facebook.

"We almost weren’t going to come," Nancy recalled. "It was really cold that day. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we came in. We were blown away. So many people showed up — there were at least 100 people. None of them knew him — they just knew that he was a skateboarder that had been involved in an accident."

From Gothamist, Aug. 18:

24-Year-Old Woman Dies One Week After Being Pinned To Light Pole By Midtown Driver

A young woman who was struck and pinned against a light pole by a driver in Midtown East earlier this month has died, according to police.

Authorities have confirmed Mallory Weisbrod, 24, died on Sunday. She was struck by a driver at 2nd Avenue and East 49th Street on the afternoon of August 10th, and suffered serious leg injuries. The 64-year-old driver, who was operating a Mercedes-Benz, mounted a curb while heading southbound on 2nd Avenue. He also struck a 23-year-old woman and a 21-year-old woman—the former was treated at Bellevue Hospital and is expected to survive, while the latter refused medical treatment.

Weisbrod lived only a few blocks from where she was fatally struck. No arrests have been made but the NYPD says the investigation is ongoing.

From the NY Times, Oct. 31:

Three people were killed on Saturday, including a 10-year-old girl, after a car swerved off a road in the Bronx and ran onto a sidewalk, crashing into a group of children and adults who were trick-or-treating, the police said.

The crash, which happened just before 5 p.m. on Morris Park Avenue, near Bogart Avenue, injured four others, including a 3-year-old girl and the driver, the authorities said.

The police said that the driver was a 52-year-old man in a sedan. He was driving westbound when he bumped another car and then swerved onto the sidewalk. The car came to a stop at 936 Morris Park Avenue.

From 69 News, Allentown, PA:

Allentown crash knocks out power to thousands on Halloween night

Officials say a car crashed into a PPL [Pennsylvania Power and Light] Electric and Utilities substation on East Columbia Street in Allentown around 7:30 PM and went up in flames. Fire officials said Saturday night that they were not able to extinguish the flames until they received permission from PPL Corporation officials hours after the crash.

Witnesses say flames could be seen shooting up into the air as high as 20 to 30 feet. Crews worked throughout the night to put out the fire and restore power to the surrounding area. Over 6,000 people were affected by the outage. Allentown police say the driver of the vehicle was arrested for DUI. In addition to a DUI charge, the driver is also charged with recklessly endangering another person and driving with a suspended license - which was the result of a separate DUI offense.

First the good news. The Daily News reports Nov. 10 that Public Advocate Letitia James will introduce a bill making it legal for pedestrians to cross while the light is blinking (Outragroues that it isn't!) But simultanesouly, DNAInfo tells us that the NYPD is about to begin a "Jaywalking Ticketing Blitz in Queens." Perversely, this is portrayed as for pedestrians' "own protection" (Sic!) We are told: "The change comes days after an elderly woman was struck and killed by a bus while walking mid-block near Main Street and Kissena Boulevard—whose death was the catalyst for the meeting at the [109th] precinct, officials said." Fuck this Orwellian blame-the-victim bullshit. We continue to assert: Jaywalking is a human right. NOT ONE INCH TO THE TYRANNY OF THE AUTOMOBILE!!!

From Gothamist, Dec. 7:

SUV Driver Kills 30-Year-Old Woman On Fort Greene Sidewalk

A woman walking on a Brooklyn sidewalk with her boyfriend was fatally struck by a driver last night. Apparently an SUV driver jumped the sidewalk because he wanted to avoid hitting a bus.

According to the police, the incident occurred just before 5:30 p.m.: A 2004 Chevrolet Suburban was heading eastbound on Fulton Street in Fort Greene when, at South Portland Street, the driver "swerved to the right in order to avoid hitting the vehicle in front it." The 5,300-6,100 pounds vehicle barreled into Victoria Nicodemus, 30; her 37-year-old boyfriend; and another 75-year-old female pedestrian.

Nicodemus was pronounced dead at Brooklyn Hospital; her boyfriend and the other pedestrian are in stable condition...

Police arrested the SUV's driver, Marlon Sewell, charging him with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle without insurance and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Gothamist on Dec. 17 runs the utterly maddening story of Christen Conyers who was sent to jail for six months for riding his bicycle on the streets of New York. He was leaving his Harlem housing project to break his Ramadan fast at a local chicken joint back in June when he ran into a Black Lives Matter protest. "They told me to get on the sidewalk, but I was on my bike so that would have been illegal," Conyers told reporters during visiting hours at the Manhattan Detention Complex. "I wasn't part of the protest, although if I was that would have been my legal right." He was busted on a string of ludicrous charges: felony assault of a police officer, resisting arrest, two counts of disorderly conduct, obstructing vehicular traffic, and harassment in the second degree. These were reduced at his arraignment to disorderly conduct, but he was still sent up the river for six months for violating conditions of his parole on a prior. What utter bullshit.

Here we go again. New York's PIX reports :

HOMECREST, Brooklyn — A city bus driver has been arrested after he struck a 62-year-old pedestrian in Brooklyn, killing her, police said Monday.

Wayne Alman, 52, faces a charge of failure to yield to a pedestrian, according to NYPD.

Investigators said Alman was behind the wheel of a B36 bus the evening of Dec. 14 when he made a left turn on East 17th Street from Avenue Z and slammed into Eleanora Shulkina as she crossed the street.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found the 62-year-old victim unconscious and unresponsive. She was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.

Alman remained at the scene, police said.

But the headline was "MTA bus driver arrested in deadly Brooklyn crash." This was not a crash. This was an eldery pedestrian getting squashed like a bug.

An apparently homeless woman with a toddler in her car plowed into pedestrians on the crowded Las Vegas Strip Dec. 20, killing one and injuring dozens. The driver, Lakeisha Holloway, was said to be a drifter who had arrived in Las Vegas days earlier. (NBC)

Meanwhile, the youth in the so-called "affluenza" case, Ethan Couch, is reported to have fled the country with his mother—just before a scheduled court hearing that could have transferred his case to adult court, possibly resulting in prison time. Couch came under fire this month after a video surfaced on Twitter that appeared to show him playing drinking games, which would violate his 10-year probation sentence. When his probation officer came around to check in on him, the house was abandoned. (NYT, Dec. 22)

We asked when Couch received probation despite having killed four if his too-rich-to-know-better defense would inspire a too-poor-to-know-better defense. Let's see what happens to Lakeisha Holloway. The psychological pressures of being a homeless single mom strike us as a far more legitimate defense than being a spoilt brat.

But the latest in New York City's workaday traffic fatalities (there were 242 in 2015, according to the Mean Streets blog) is the case of middle-aged Stanley Marshall, who was riding his bike on Staten Island's Richmond Ave. when he was run down by a motorist who pulled out of a parking lot. The headline in the Daily News reads: "Man, 59, killed while riding bicycle by stoned driver on Staten Island." The motorist, Lisa Martini, admitted to police: "I was just pulling out from getting my food and I guess I hit something. I smoked a little bit of weed around 2:30."

But in the next paragraph down is a continuation of the quote: “I take buspirone for my anxiety problem and sometimes Xanax,” she added. Martini was swaying, and had bloodshot eyes, body tremors and poor coordination, the complaint said.

Now, pot, as we all know, can cause bloodshot eyes. But body tremors and poor coordination? Every toker knows that is not part of the cannabis high. However, RxList website informs us side effects of Xanax include "dizziness" and "poor balance or coordination." And buspirone? Expect "dizziness... nervousness, lightheadedness, drowsiness, blurred vision," according to RxList.

Martini is a 9-11 widow (her husband was an FDNY lieutenant killed in the Twin Towers collapse), so we're not here to give her a hard time over her substance use. But let's not allow this incident to become more fodder for anti-cannabis propaganda. However counterintuitive it may seem (for people who don't actually use cannabis), a 2011 study found a reduction in traffic fatalities in states that had legalized medical marijuana. The conjecture was folks were turning to legal cannabis instead of alcohol. The study's authors were quick to emphasize that their research doesn't "prove" that cannabis impairs driving less than alcohol. But anybody who has used both knows that is the case. And we'll bet the same can be said of pot as compared to Xanax and buspirone .

More to the point: It is the domination of the city's streets by toxin-belching death machines that is really responsible for traffic fatalities—and everyone accepts that as completely "normal." You've got to give New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio credit for his Vision Zero program that at least aspires to get the human roadkill down to nothing before he leaves office. But what is the critical issue here? That Lisa Martini was high on ‪‎cannabis‬? Or that she was driving an automobile? If anyone asks me, I say: ban cars‬, legalize pot!

From Global Ganja Report

In a charming convergence of two of the most sinister trends on the planet—car culture and robotocracy—AP reported Feb. 29: "A self-driving car being tested by Google struck a public bus on a Silicon Valley street, a fender-bender that appears to be the first time one of the tech company's vehicles caused a crash during testing." Gee, we can hardly wait for self-driving cars to become ubiquitous....

From CBS New York, Feb. 28:

3 Dead, 2 Others Injured In 5 Separate Hit-And-Runs Across NYC
NEW YORK  — Police are searching for several drivers after five hit-and-runs were reported in four boroughs overnight.

Three people were killed and two others were injured over the course of several hours early Sunday.

A spokesperson from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said the NYPD is "aggressively" investigating each case.

"Investigators are examining video footage from the area of each crash to identify those responsible to hold them accountable," said Wiley Norvell, with the Office of the Mayor.

From Lower Hudson Journal News, Feb. 27:

Oil spill leaks up to 600 gallons into Bronx River
YONKERS - As much as 600 gallons of oil drained into the Bronx River Saturday as hazmat crews scrambled to clean up a large oil spill.

"It's a major cleanup operation," said Yonkers Fire Department Chief of Operations Robert Capurso.

The truck, carrying 6,000 gallons of home-heating oil, was en route to Glendale Gardens, an apartment building at 125 Bronx River Road, around 8:30 a.m., Battalion Chief Timothy Fitzpatrick said. As the truck pulled into a driveway to make the delivery, oil began leaking out of the truck.

The truck's oil tank was divided into three sections, and the driver managed to contain the oil in two of them as the third section leaked.

Up to 2,000 gallons of oil spilled onto the roadway in front of the apartment building, Fitzpatrick said.

Up to 600 gallons of oil made it to a storm drain on the road and emptied into the Bronx River.

That's actually the encouraging title of a Feb. 29 opinion piece in the Washington Post by J H Crawford, author of Carfree Cities and Carfree Design Manual, and publisher of Carfree.com. The opening paragraphs:

We must first remember that all cities were car-free little more than a century ago. Not all cities responded to the advent of automobiles with the same enthusiasm as the cities of the United States. In fact, some cities never did adopt the car. Venice was unwilling to destroy itself in order to build streets wide enough for cars, and therefore has never had them except in a sliver near the mainland. The same situation exists in the Medina of Fez, Morocco, and several other North African cities. These districts are usually the most vibrant parts of their cities.

Cars were never necessary in cities, and in many respects they worked against the fundamental purpose of cities: to bring many people together in a space where social, cultural and economic synergies could develop. Because cars require so much space for movement and parking, they work against this objective — they cause cities to expand in order to provide the land cars need. Removing cars from cities would help to improve the quality of urban life.

At least such ideas are no longer completely taboo...

Talk about a license to kill. Gothamist on March 18 reports on the maddening case of Cindy Klumb, a Pratt Institute art instructor who was critically injured in a hit-and-run—and says cops let the assailant go after he flashed his badge. Klumb and her lawyer have yet to get the NYPD to turn over its footage from nearby surveillance cameras.

From AP, March 19:

NEW YORK  — Police say a woman was fatally struck by a taxi in Manhattan and the taxi kept going. The accident happened shortly after 3:30 a.m. Saturday on First Avenue near East 16th Street. Police say the woman was lying in the roadway when she was hit by a yellow cab. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. She was identified as 44-year-old Kenya Flores, of the Bronx. Police are seeking the taxi driver.

This just gets worse and worse. School-teacher Felix Coss, 61, was killed by police van while crossing a street in Williamsburg in July 2013. The officer who struck him, Paula Medrano, was never charged, and his family sued the city. Now Gothamist reports that the city is arguing that Coss "voluntarily...assumed the risk" of crossing the street—this despite the fact that he had the signal! Worse yet, witnesses say Medrano was talking on her cell phone when she ran down Coss. 

And Bill "Vision Zero" de Blasio is going along with this shit?

And worse still! Undercover police arrested and roughly treated a mailman who was doing his rounds in Crown Heights after they nearly sideswiped him in their car and he cursed them out for it. (Now This, March 25; Gothamist, March 23) OK, even assuming that cops are above the law and we are subject to arrest if we give 'em some lip over their lawless behavior... are we supposed to use our fucking ESP to determine who are the undercovers? And people wonder why we say ‪#‎FuckDaPolice‬...

So Allen Bullock, 19, who pleaded guilty to smashing the windshield of a police car during last April's Baltimore riots following the police slaying of Freddie Gray, is sentenced to 12 years—although all but six months is likely to be suspended. (CBS Baltimore, March 29) But former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship gets one year for responsibility in the Upper Big Branch coal-mine disaster that left 29 dead in West Virginia in 2010. After pleading not guilty, and arrogantly declaring in court: "I didn't break any laws." As a Lexington Herald Leader commentary notes, that's 12.5 days for each miner's life.

#BlackLivesMatter? Easy to see what matters in this world. Cars (especially police cars) and fossil fuels.

From the Cyclelicious blog:

Last week’s episode of the Freakonomics Podcast discussed the "perfect crime." Stephen Dubner examines the best way to kill somebody and get away with it.

His shocking discovery? Do it with your car. You're all so surprised, right?

Dubner’s podcast touches many of the themes so familiar to advocates of active transportation. Namely:

Homicide by car is very rarely punished as a crime.

American legal system makes vehicular manslaughter prosecution very difficult.

"It's just an accident."

Comparing accidental shootings...with accidental traffic deaths. Anything else is heavily prosecuted. Traffic "accidents" are ignored by the justice system.

The dehumanization of anybody who doesn’t drive a car. The only people who matter are people who drive autos...

According to police reports, it's the pedestrians' fault, because they’re doing something wrong. Get off the road!

We don’t really know who’s at fault because the only witness is the surviving driver. Responding officer hears only one side of the story...

Oh that poor, traumatized, innocent driver who was just minding her own business when *wham* that pedestrian came out of nowhere to ruin her day!

Is the death penalty really warranted if a pedestrian does something wrong?

Who are the roads for?

Et cetera. The problem is that Dubner (at least in the promos for the broadcast aired on WNYC) comes across as a sociopath boasting of how to commit the perfect murder and get away with it... Run someone over in a car. Now, he seems to be making a "point" I agree with... that a diver's license is a license to kill. But his whole attitude is like, Hey what fun! Let's mow down pedestrians! Aren't we bad boys!

And this when there is a wave of hit-and-run "accidents" (sic) going on in the city....

An NYPD cop was caught on video telling a motorist he pulled over in the Bronx that it’s Mayor de Blasio’s fault he’s getting a ticket. “Mayor de Blasio wants us to give out summonses Okay? Alright?” the cop tells the driver, who appears to be holding a ticket in his hand while the camera rolls. (NY Post, April 11)

From CityLab, April 6:

The number of America's youngest drivers just hit a record low, according to newly published data from the Federal Highway Administration. Roughly 8.5 million people ages 19 and younger had their licenses in 2014, and of those, just a little more than one million were 16 and younger—the lowest number since the 1960s.

Nationally, teen driving has been curving downwards for years, as automakers and transit advocates will inform you with respective consternation and glee. Why teens aren’t scrambling to the DMV as they did in decades past is a matter of debate. One explanation is the recession, which hit young people particularly hard... There may also be an attitude shift the air: Kids today may not place as much value on automobiles as previous generations did, and may be more open to other forms of transportation (including their parents' backseats, presumably).

From the Daily News, April 17:

Verizon lawyer accused of hitting protesters with Porsche
A Verizon Communications lawyer has been accused of hitting two of the company's striking workers with his Porsche.

The Communications Workers of America, who led roughly 40,000 East Coast employees in walking off the job Wednesday, said that a pair had been hit by the unidentified attorney in Gaithersburg, Md.

"That says it all, doesn't it?" the union said next to a photo they said showed police investigating the incident.

One of the workers was reportedly taken to the hospital.

From StreetsBlog, May 17:

NYPD and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark have not charged the driver who struck and killed 3-year-old Mariam Dansoko in a crosswalk near Yankee Stadium Monday.

Mariam, her mother, and a 2-year-old sibling in a stroller were crossing E. 164th Street at Gerard Avenue north to south when a 21-year-old man hit Mariam with a 2014 Nissan while turning left from Gerard, which is northbound, onto E. 164th, according to NYPD and published reports. DNAinfo reported that Mariam was on her way to preschool when the crash occurred, at around 8 a.m.

“There’s no charges at this point,” an NYPD spokesperson told Streetsblog. True to NYPD protocol when a motorist kills a pedestrian and is not charged or ticketed, police shielded the driver’s identity.

License to kill.

From Michigan's WZZM, June 8:

COOPER TOWNSHIP, MICH. - Five bicyclists were killed and four others seriously injured when they were struck by a pickup truck Tuesday evening on a road in Cooper Township, Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said.

In the half-hour before the bicyclists were struck, law enforcement in three jurisdictions received calls about a blue pickup truck driving erratically, Getting told reporters in a late-night news conference Tuesday night.

Fuck 'em. That's what they get for riding bicyles. Unpatriotic losers. If we don't use lots of oil every day, all those kids we sent to Iraq died in vain and the terrorists win.

From the Village Voice, July 5:

Matthew Von Ohlen was riding in the bike lane in Williamsburg on Saturday when, according to police, a motorist intentionally slammed into him. Von Ohlen was killed and the driver fled the scene. The NYPD responded the following morning by issuing summonses to cyclists on the same block for running red lights.

According to the NYPD and video footage of the crash, Von Ohlen did nothing wrong. "He was killed like a dog in the street," a neighbor told the Daily News. Yet officers from the 90th Precinct were out the next day summonsing cyclists and passing out pamphlets about their obligations and responsibilities.

"This is a particularly egregious example of the NYPD's skewed priorities when it comes to traffic enforcement, and of the victim-blaming mentality that pervades the department," said Paul Steely White, the director of Transportation Alternatives, in a statement today.

From The Villager, July 13:

In memoriam: After hit-and-run death in BPC, city DOT aiming to make greenway crossing safer

The city says it will study ways to make a deadly Battery Park City intersection safer after a cyclist was killed by a hit-and-run run driver last month.

Upper West Side resident Olga Cook was fatally struck by an allegedly intoxicated driver on the Hudson River Greenway at Chambers St. on June 11, leading Community Board 1 to call on the city’s Department of Transportation to install better signaling at the intersection, which is notorious among locals.

Cook was an avid cyclist and triathlete, who cycled along the greenway bike path as part of her daily training regimen. That someone so accustomed to cycling in that area could be struck by a driver highlights how dangerous that intersection truly is, according to her husband.

"If it could happen to her, it could happen to anybody," said Travis Maclean. "She is the most intelligent woman I ever met."

Cook was heading northbound on the greenway—which parallels the West Side Highway—at 7:52 PM on June 11 when, as she crossed Chambers St., a driver heading southbound on the West Side Highway turned right and slammed into her. As Cook lay bleeding on the street, the driver fled, only to be spotted three blocks away by an off-duty MTA police officer, who promptly arrested the suspect.
Cook was pronounced dead little more than a half hour later at Bellevue Hospital.

The light pole nearest the accident is now covered with a shrine of stuffed animals, love letters, and bouquets of fresh sunflowers—Cook's favorite—which are replaced daily by her family as well as by a nearby Chamber St. resident who has taken it upon herself to honor a woman she never met, in part because she feels Cook's death represents the danger faced by everyone at that infamous intersection.

"I just feel like it could have been me," said Rossella Livraga. "It could have been my son. It could have been anybody."

From the Daily News, July 17:

Drunken off-duty NYPD cop plows SUV onto Brooklyn sidewalk, killing a pedestrian

Bystanders corralled a drunken off-duty cop after his speeding SUV killed a Brooklyn pedestrian and horribly injured three of his college pals in a gruesome wreck, cops and eyewitnesses said.

Officer Nicholas Batka’s vehicle was seen swerving in the seconds before impact. His runaway SUV tore the leg off one victim and left another impaled on a fence, witnesses said.

"The EMTs had to get a saw to remove the man impaled on the railing," said witness Jaminah Kang, 35. "Another man (looked) like he took a chain saw to the knee."

The inebriated second-year cop flashed his badge and slipped into his SUV’s passenger’s seat about 3 AM. Saturday as the mangled victims writhed in agony on a bloodstained sidewalk in Williamsburg.

A cell phone video captured a man in a red shirt wagging a menacing finger at Batka, keeping the SUV door shut tight and the off-duty cop pinned inside.

"Don't let him get out!" someone else shouted. "He's going to run away!"

The sloshed cop was trapped inside the SUV — on the driver's side by a utility pole he crashed into and on the passenger side by the enraged onlookers...

Prosecutors identified the victim as Andrew Esquivel in charging documents... Batka was charged with manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, three counts of assault, driving while intoxicated, driving with impaired ability and driving on a sidewalk.

From the New York Times, Aug. 19:

Two New Jersey Transit buses collided in Newark during the early morning commute on Friday, killing one driver and a passenger and injuring at least 17 other people, the authorities said...

Images shared online suggested that one of the buses had slammed into the midsection of the other in a "T-bone" crash.

The collision left a scene of police officers and emergency workers swarming over a site strewn with twisted metal, and local media reports said injured passengers were trapped after one bus was tipped over at an angle

From the NY Daily News, Aug. 22:

A 10-year-old boy died Sunday on the way to his own birthday party in a horrific Long Island Expressway crash that also killed his father and three others.

One of the victims of the three-car wreck was Scott Martella, a 29-year-old former aide to Gov. Cuomo who was set to marry his high school sweetheart.

Young Christopher Pinales turned 10 last week and was on his way to the Splish Splash water park in Calverton, L.I., to celebrate, when his father, Carmelo, lost control of his Subaru Outback as he drove east on the highway by Exit 68 in Manorville shortly after 9:30 a.m.

Police are looking into whether Pinales was speeding before the Subaru crossed a grassy median and went airborne, slamming into a Honda and a BMW going in the opposite direction.

Well, this one hits a perfect trifecta of American pathologies... Car culture, gun-fetishism and racism... A white motorist in the Cleveland area ran a red light, causing an accident—then pulled out his AK-47 and shot to death the motorist in the car that he hit:  Deborah Pearl, a 53-year-old Black woman who had her hands up. Matthew Desha, 29, has been charged with murder. (Daily News, Aug. 29)

The New York Times Sept. 4 reports of an effort by police in Colorado to crack down on a new menace on America's roads: diesel truck drivers who soup up their engines and remove their emissions controls to "roll coal," or belch black smoke, at pedestrians, cyclists and unsuspecting Prius drivers.

Several were injured when counter-protesters in a pick-up truck menaced and finally drove into a group of Native Americans holding a demonstration against Columbus Day in Reno, Nev. The driver and passneger were questioned by police, but no charges were filed. (KOLO, Reno, AJ+, Oct. 10)

From ABC News, Nov. 22:

The school bus driver charged in connection with a crash that killed five children in Tennessee on Monday was involved in a separate bus collision two months ago, ABC News has learned.

Johnthony Walker, 24, was driving a bus for Durham School Services — the same as in the fatal crash — when he sideswiped an oncoming Kia Soul in September after crossing into oncoming traffic while attempting to negotiate a "blind curve," according to the crash report.

There were no injuries, according to the crash report, and children were seated in the rear rows.

No charges were filed in that incident, but a citation for failure to yield was issued. It was unclear if Durham took any action against Walker after that collision.

Bicycles now outnumber cars in Copenhagen’s traffic, according to new figures released by the city authorities of Denmark’s capital.The latest traffic count conducted by the city indicates that 265,700 bicycles entered the centre Copenhagen in a 24-hour period, compared to 252,600 cars—the first time that has happened since records began in 1970. (Road.cc, Nov. 10)

So 11 are injured as one  Abdul Razak Ali Artan, supposedly inspired by ISIS, rammed his car into a group of people on the Ohio State University campus in Columbus before being shot down by police. (CNN) The right-wing media are aghast at a perceived relcutance to call the attack "terrorism." But nobody seems to be identifying car culture as a culprit.

 From BBC News, Dec. 19:

A three-year-old boy being taken out shopping by his grandmother has been killed in a road rage shooting in Little Rock, Arkansas, US police say. Their vehicle was fired upon by another driver who thought the woman had not driven quickly enough through a stop sign, police said. The grandmother drove away but the boy later died in hospital.

Police are hunting for a black Chevrolet Impala but gave few details of the man driving it. Authorities identified the grandmother as 47-year-old Kim King-Macon and the boy as Acen King, according to local media reports.

From the New York Times, Feb. 15:

Over the last decade, new cars have gotten electronic stability control systems to prevent skids, rearview cameras to prevent fender benders and more airbags to protect occupants in collisions. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on campaigns to remind the public of the dangers of drunken driving, failing to buckle up and texting while on the go.

Despite all that, more Americans are dying on roads and highways than in years, and the sudden and sharp increase has alarmed safety advocates.

The latest batch of bad news arrived Wednesday in traffic fatality estimates released by the National Safety Council, a nonprofit organization that works closely with federal auto-safety regulators. According to its estimates, 40,200 people died in accidents involving motor vehicles in 2016, a 6 percent rise from the year before.

If the estimates are confirmed, it will be the first time since 2007 that more than 40,000 people have died in motor vehicle accidents in a single year. The 2016 total comes after a 7 percent rise in 2015 and means the two-year increase — 14 percent — is the largest in more than a half a century.

"Why are we O.K. with this?" Deborah Hersman, the National Safety Council president and chief executive, said at a news conference. "Complacency is killing us."

Part of the increase is believed to stem from the improving economy, which has led Americans to drive more miles for both work and pleasure. But safety advocates say that explains only part of the trend because the number of deaths as a percentage of miles driven is also increasing.

They also point to data suggesting an increase in distracted driving. While cars and phones now offer advanced voice controls and other features intended to keep drivers’ eyes on the road, apps like Facebook, Google Maps, Snapchat and others have created new temptations that drivers and passengers find hard to resist.

"It's not just talking on the phone that’s a problem today," said Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. “You now have all these other apps that people can use on their phones."

We predicted in 2010... a year or two from now, they'lll be lecturing us about the dangers of watching porn videos while driving. Welcome to the dystopian future.

From AP, Feb. 25:

Dozens hurt after 'drunk' driver plows into Mardi Gras crowd
NEW ORLEANS — A suspect is in custody after 28 people were injured Saturday when a vehicle plowed into a crowd watching the Krewe of Endymion parade in the Mid-City section of New Orleans, police said.

Police Chief Michael Harrison said the suspect is being investigated for driving while intoxicated. Harrison was asked twice by the media if terrorism was suspected. While he didn't say "No" he did say it looks like a case of DWI.

"We suspect that that subject was highly intoxicated," he said.

Twenty-one people were hospitalized after the crash with five victims in guarded condition.

From the Daily News, Feb. 26:

Bronx woman to file $150M lawsuit accusing NYPD of hit-and-run 'coverup'
A Bronx woman plans to sue the city for $150 million, claiming cops “covered up” a hit-and-run that left her with serious injuries.

Tishira Japa, 21, charges in a notice of claim filed with city Controller Scott Stringer’s office that cops knowingly issued a false accident report about the incident on W. Fordham Road at 4:05 a.m. on Dec. 17.

A video of the crash shows a white minivan slam into Japa as she stood on a double-yellow line waiting to cross, sending her rolling down the snowy road about 40 feet.

The driver, identified as Mene Mpeke, who could not be reached by the Daily News, then gets out of the van for a minute before getting back behind the wheel and driving away. The police report on the crash inaccurately states that Japa spoke with police and that the driver didn’t leave the scene, the notice of claim charges...

An NYPD spokesman said the driver left the scene because he feared for his safety. That is not noted in the accident report.

Investigators failed to follow proper protocol for such a serious crash, Sanders said.

Japa suffered seven fractures in her pelvis that could affect her for the rest of her life, papers charge.

In 2014, the typical urban commuter spent 42 hours stuck in traffic, up from 20 hours in 1984. Americans consumed over three billion gallons of gas as they sat in grid­lock for almost seven billion hours, at a cost of $160 billion in wasted fuel and time. (Foreign Affairs, Sept./Oct. 2016)

A Bedford-Stuyvesant couple is two and a half years into what looks like a losing legal battle over a stack of tickets they got for allegedly running a series of red lights in the neighborhood, to the tune of over $4,600. The cops evidently followed the couple, watching them run four red lights to jack up the total they could be slapped with. Perversely, the cops invoked "Vision Zero" in writing the tickets. (Gothamist, March 31)

And, as we've noted, there is a very good case for allowing bicycles to run red ligts, treating them essentially the way motorists (theoretically) treat stop signs. Idaho has already adopted this policy.

So Lower East Side woman Kelly Hurley, hit by a box truck while bicycling (with the right of way) at E. Ninth St. and First Ave., dies of her injuries a week later. The driver has not been charged—but in the wake of the killing, cyclists and safe-streets advocates have criticized the NYPD for apparently cracking down on cyclists, not motorists, in the area where Hurley was hit. (Gothamist, Villager, Village Voice)

From The Villager, March 30:

Careening cab plants itself in Jefferson Market Garden
Spring came into the Jefferson Market Garden with a roar — no, not of a lion…but an out-of-control, speeding yellow taxi.

The cab went wildly crashing through the garden’s metal fence early Sunday morning.

George Paulos, the chairperson of the garden, at Sixth and Greenwich Aves., said that, according to the police report, the taxi slammed into the green oasis at 2:30 a.m. It knocked out the bars in four sections of the fence, though the trellis on top somehow remarkably remained intact.

One person was killed and at least 22 were injured when a car struck pedestrians in New York’s Times Square. The driver of the Honda, Richard Rojas, 26, a Navy veteran from the Bronx, had a history of arrests for drunken driving, said officials. "Based on information we have at this moment, there is no indication that this was an act of terrorism,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters at a news conference near the scene of the rampage. (NYT, May 18)

Not to worry, this isn't "terrorism." As long as it is apolitical mowing down of pedestrians.... no prob!

From The Villager, May 18:

Woman is killed by garbage truck on Sixth Ave.
A 60-year-old woman died after being mowed down by a private sanitation truck at the intersection of W. Eighth St. and Greenwich and Sixth Aves. on Tues., May 16, around 11:40 p.m. According to police, the woman was crossing from the north to the south side of the street and the truck was traveling eastbound from Greenwich Ave. Police found the victim lying in the street, unconscious and unresponsive, with severe body trauma. E.M.S. transported her to Lenox Health Greenwich Village, at W. 12th St. and Seventh Ave., in life-threatening condition, where she was pronounced dead. Police are not releasing the woman’s identity yet, pending family notification. The garbage truck was operated by M&M Sanitation Corp. Its 46-year-old driver remained at the scene. As of Wed., May 17, there were no arrests and no charges filed against the driver. A spokesperson for M&M Sanitation said the truck was only going 4 miles per hour when it struck the woman. A Police Department spokesperson said she could not definitively answer how fast the truck was going at the time of the incident, and that the department’s Collision Investigation Squad was still investigating.

From The Villager, May 25:

Flatiron bike fatal
A 74-year-old Lower East Side cyclist died 10 days after being “doored” by a taxi in the Flatiron District and then possibly fatally struck by an Uber car.

Police said that on Thurs., May 4, around 6 p.m., Xin Kang Wang was biking eastbound on E. 20th St. between Broaday and Park Ave. South in the bike lane, when a rear passenger-side door of a 2016 Toyota Camry swung open and Wang struck it. He bounced into the lane of moving traffic and fell in front of a second 2016 Toyota, an Uber.

Responding to a 911 call, police found the victim lying in the street with body trauma. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he died from his injuries on Sun., May 14. Both drivers remained at the scene. There were no arrests. The investigation is ongoing.

Wang lived at 77 Columbia St. in Masaryk Towers, a Mitchell-Lama affordable housing development.

The Daily News reported that the first car had New Jersey license plates and pulled into the bike lane right in front of Wang, and that the passenger threw open the rear door without checking for cyclists, according to cops. Its driver was reportedly given a summons for discharging a passenger in a bike lane. There were conflicting accounts of whether the second car, the Uber, struck the fallen cyclist.

From the New York Times, June 18:

For the 2nd Time in a Week, a Cyclist Is Killed by a Bus in Chelsea
An 80-year-old man on a bicycle was struck and killed on Saturday by a charter bus in the Chelsea section of Manhattan — the second time in a week that a cyclist has died in a bus accident in the neighborhood.

The latest victim, Michael Mamoukakis, was hit by the bus shortly after 1:30 p.m. while riding near the intersection of West 29th Street and Seventh Avenue. According to the police, both Mr. Mamoukakis and the bus, which was registered to Buckeye Limousine and Charters Corporation of Ohio, were traveling south on Seventh Avenue; the bus struck him as it tried to make a right turn onto West 29th Street.

Mr. Mamoukakis was the sixth person killed on a bicycle in New York this year, according to city statistics.

Last Monday, Dan Hanegby, a 36-year-old investment banker, was riding a Citi Bike east along 26th Street — his usual commute to work — when, after passing Eighth Avenue, he was struck and killed by a charter bus, becoming the first fatality in the four years of New York's Citi Bike program. The bus that killed Mr. Hanegby was registered to Hudson Transit Lines in Chester, N.Y.

Neither of the bus companies responded to phone calls on Sunday seeking comment.

Mr. Mamoukakis, who was born on Crete, was a lifelong cobbler, learning his craft at age 14 and later opening Mike's Shoe Repair on Dey Street in the financial district, a business that he ran for more than 25 years. He closed the shop, in the shadow of the World Trade Center, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, his family said on Sunday.

At that point Mr. Mamoukakis was 65, according to his relatives, and after he retired, he turned his attention to hobbies like hiking, cooking and cycling. He biked almost every day in good weather, they said, enjoying rides along the West Side Highway, in Riverside Park and at Union Square where he would linger over the art booths and shop for fresh produce.

"Biking was his pleasure," his brother George Mamoukakis said. "He loved his bike."

The Manhattan district attorney's office investigates all traffic fatalities in the borough to determine if criminal charges are warranted. The district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., has brought charges in several similar cases under a relatively new city statute, and the bus drivers in both of the deaths could face charges if prosecutors find they were at fault.

From AP, June 19: 

FAIRFAX, Va. — A man charged with murder in the death of a Muslim Virginia teen who was attacked near her mosque became "enraged" by a traffic argument with one of the girl's friends and hit her with a baseball bat before abducting her, police said Monday.

Though the slaying of Nabra Hassanen — whose body was found in a pond — raised concerns that she was targeted because she was Muslim, Fairfax County police spokeswoman Julie Parker said at a news conference that police have no reason to believe that the killing was a hate crime.

"Nothing indicates that this was motivated by race or by religion. It appears the suspect became so enraged over this traffic argument that it escalated into deadly violence," Parker said.

Hassanen, 17, was with a group of as many as 15 teens who had left their Sterling-area mosque between Ramadan prayers to get food at a McDonald's, Parker said.

They were making their way back to the All Dulles Area Muslim Society between 3 and 4 a.m. Sunday, some walking and some riding bikes, when the suspect drove up to the group and began to argue with a male teen, Parker said.

The suspect, 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres, drove up onto a curb and the group scattered, Parker said. Martinez Torres caught up with them in a nearby parking lot, got out of his car armed with a baseball bat and began chasing the group, she said.

"His anger over that earlier encounter then led to violence when he hit Nabra with a baseball bat," Parker said. She said he took the girl with him in his car to a nearby location, where she was assaulted a second time.

Authorities later found her body in a pond. An autopsy revealed she died of blunt force trauma to the upper body, Parker said.

Now's where the righties get to say it was "only" (sic!!!) "road rage," and lefties get to insist no it wasn't, it was an Islamophic attack—as if these were mutually exclusive theses, and as if OPPRESSION of pedestrians and bicyclists by motorists were not a POLITICAL QUESTION that urgently needs to be included in our understanding of "intersectionality."

Police in California are asking for witnesses to come forward after a motorcyclist kicked a car while traveling at a high speed along a freeway in Santa Clarita. This caused a pile-up which damaged the first car and flipped another, leaving one person injured. It was all caught on a dashboard camera by a motorist. (The Guardian)

From the Daily Mail:

Executed for changing lane: Hunt for white driver who killed African-American 18-year-old girl with one bullet to the head in a fit of road rage when they both merged into the same lane
Police are hunting for a man who shot and killed a teenage girl in a road rage attack after the two merged into the same lane on a highway in Pennsylvania.

Bianca Nikol Roberson, 18, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, was driving southbound late Wednesday afternoon when she and a man in a red pickup truck jostled for position on the road, reported NBC 10.

The truck's driver became enraged and pulled out his gun, shooting Roberson directly in the head before fleeing the scene down the highway, according to police.

Roberson's car then lost control and crashed into a wooded area near West Goshen. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Racism, ageism or a manifestation of pathological gun culture, or pathological car culture? ALL FOUR. #Intersectionality

From the Daily News, June 26:

Bicyclist hit by wrong-way driver fleeing police in Midtown Manhattan
A wrong-way driver trying to outrun police near Penn Station slammed into a bicyclist and then hit other cars Sunday night, cops and witnesses said.

The road menace was driving a dark Infiniti recklessly in a parking garage on W. 34th St., between Eighth and Ninth Aves. in Midtown at about 7:30 p.m. when police tried to rein him in on Eighth, cops said.

Instead the driver sped off, turning onto Seventh Ave. and hitting a man on a bicycle, said a food cart worker who saw the horrible accident unfold.

"The guy on the bike flew up and hit the windshield of the car so hard. The whole windshield is broken. But the car just kept going," said the worker, who declined to give his name. "He hit other cars because he was still going the wrong way, he was just driving through them."

The driver jumped out of the car and ran off, but was caught on W. 35th St. by Seventh Ave, said police, who also took a passenger into custody.

Medics took the cyclist to Bellevue Hospital in serious but stable condition, an FDNY spokeswoman said.

From the Daily News, July 3:

Delrawn Small's widow and mom of his kids file 2 lawsuits against cop in road rage killing
The road rage killing of a man shot in Brooklyn last year by an off-duty police officer sparked two lawsuits Monday, the eve of the anniversary of Delrawn Small's death.

Small's widow filed a wrongful death suit, while the mother of the victim’s three children filed a federal claim blaming the NYPD for allowing off-duty officers to carry firearms.

Small, 37, was shot and killed after a July 4 confrontation in East New York with off-duty officer Wayne Isaacs, 38, who was later charged with second-degree murder.

Small's widow, Wenona Small, who is not the mother of his children, is filing the wrongful death suit, and the mom, Zaquanna Albert, is filing the federal claim, according to their lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein..

Friends and family members held a vigil in Small's honor Monday night at the intersection where he died.

A witness said the early morning confrontation began last July 4 when Isaacs' car cut off Small’s 2016 Kia shortly after the cop’s 4 p.m.-midnight shift ended.

Police said Small, of Cypress Hills, chased Isaacs' vehicle.

A surveillance video captured Small, who was two cars behind Isaacs, exiting his vehicle when both reached a red light.

Seconds after Small approached Isaacs' car at Atlantic Ave. and Bradford St., the cop is seen shooting the victim from inside his vehicle, the video shows.

Isaacs initially claimed to police that he opened fire because Small had punched him in the face at least twice — an allegation the video does not support. Small was shot twice in the torso.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is prosecuting Isaacs. Under a new law, the AG acts as a special prosecutor in matters involving police shootings.

Small's family said they hope the new law results in posthumous justice for the victim.

A harrowing story from Bklyner of July 10. But note the jaundiced terminology. The victim "collided" with the bus? Or the bus hit tje victims? Come on. We remain skeptical about the suicide claim. A rather cumbersome way to do it.

Woman Killed In Collision With Bus In Prospect-Lefferts Gardens
A pedestrian was killed on Nostrand Avenue after colliding with an MTA Bus on Saturday, said cops. Multiple eyewitnesses say that they saw the woman heading toward the bus in an apparent suicide, but a police investigation is still underway.

An MTA bus struck the woman on Nostrand Avenue and Lincoln Road, say cops. Officers found the unidentified woman, who was in her 30s, unconscious with severe trauma to her head and body on Saturday, July 08, just before 3pm.

Eyewitnesses told multiple news outlets that they saw the woman running toward oncoming traffic, and others say they saw a gruesome decapitation in the immediate aftermath.

Emergency medical crews pronounced the woman dead at the scene.

The driver remained on the scene and the investigation is ongoing by the NYPD's Collision Investigation Squad.

Do the cops have a Vehicular Manslaughter Investigation Squad? And she was "beheaded" but "unconscious"? Huh?

From the Daily News, July 22:

Garbage truck kills Brooklyn cyclist in hit-and-run crash
A garbage truck fatally struck a 27-year-old bicyclist in Brooklyn early Saturday, then rolled on without stopping, police said.

Neftaly Ramirez was pedaling his mountain bike along Franklin St. near Noble St. in Greenpoint when the green truck with yellow-and-white lettering slammed into him about 12:30 a.m.

After the truck — which police believe belongs to a private carting company — kept going, horrified witnesses found Ramirez sprawled out on the street suffering from multiple injuries.

Ramirez, a resident of Alphabet City, died at the scene, police said. His mangled yellow-and-black Hummer bicycle lay just a few paces from his body.

A tearful woman who identified herself as Ramirez’s grieving mother was too distraught to speak to a reporter Saturday.

Cops were searching for the truck Saturday, although it was not immediately clear if the driver knew he had hit someone before driving away.

Ramirez is the 11th bicyclist to be fatally struck in the five boroughs so far this year. By this time last year, 14 bicyclists were struck and killed, police said.

From the New York Post, July 24:

'I f—king killed my sister': Teen livestreams fatal car crash
A California teen livestreamed a deadly car crash on Instagram and then filmed her mortally wounded sister in the aftermath.

Obdulia Sanchez, 18, was filming herself Friday while allegedly driving under the influence on a California highway with two 14-year-old girls in the back seat, according to KSFN-TV.

The camera suddenly shakes frantically as the girls scream. When the film begins again, a bloody scene unfolds.

"Jacqueline, please wake up," Obdulia says while trying to shake 14-year-old Jacqueline Sanchez.

"I f—king killed my sister, OK? I know I’m going to jail for life. I understand that. I don’t f—king care..."

Even after the crash, she remains addicted to her damn phone.

From The Drive, July 25:

Driving More Than 2 Hours a Day Makes You Dumber, Report Says
The experience of sitting in traffic for hours a day can feel like it's sucking your brain away. Researchers are now saying that this isn't just a feeling, but actually true.

Kishan Bakrania, a medical epidemiologist at the University of Leicester, told The Sunday Times, "We know that regularly driving for more than two to three hours a day is bad for your heart. This research suggests it is bad for your brain, too, perhaps because your mind is less active in those hours."

The British study focused on 500,000 people between the ages of 37 and 73 who took intelligence and memory tests throughout the five years of the study. Among them, 93,000 drove more than two or three hours per day. At the beginning of the study, their IQ scores were lower than participants who drove very little or not at all. Their scores fell even further throughout the duration of the study.

"Cognitive decline is measurable over five years because it can happen fast in middle-aged and older people," Bakrania told The Sunday Times. "This is associated with lifestyle factors such as smoking and bad diet—and now with time spent driving."

From PIX, Aug. 2:

Video shows 62-year-old woman dragged in hit-and-run on Staten Island
A woman was struck by a car and dragged on a Staten Island street last month, according to video footage released by police Wednesday in an attempt to identify the driver.

A 62-year-old woman was hit by the car as she crossed Clove Road on Staten Island, the NYPD said.

The suspect did not stop after hitting the victim, dragging her as the driver continued south on Hylan Boulevard, police said. The incident occurred around 8:05 a.m. on July 14 near Woodlawn Avenue and Clove Road.

The victim was taken to a nearby hospital.

The suspect's car is described as a black, two-door Honda Accord with gold New York license plates, police said.