Anatomy of a (Legal) Hit-and-Run

3411271521_28596358ec.jpgScene of an April 3 collision between a driver and delivery man. That’s food on the car’s hood.

Early this month Streetsblog regular ddartley tagged a series of shots for the Flickr feed showing the aftermath of a driver-cyclist collision on the edge of Stuyvesant Town. According to Dartley, the cyclist was a restaurant delivery man, on the job when he was hit.

An eyewitness said the driver was traveling "like a bat out of hell,"
and that the cyclist, who was seriously injured, got dragged under the
car’s front axle. The driver was, of course, allowed to drive away
afterward.

There is no way to tell from the photos how the collision transpired or who was at fault, but the fact that within minutes the driver was allowed to leave the scene in his own car (watch it here), while the cyclist was carried away by ambulance, speaks volumes about the way cyclist- and pedestrian-involved crashes are treated by city law enforcers. Seriously: How thorough an investigation could have taken place here?

Dartley has started a Livable Streets group aimed at calming traffic on the Stuyvesant Town service road where the crash occurred.

  • Marty Barfowitz

    The problem here isn’t so much the Stuy Town service road. The problem is NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly’s total disregard for motor vehicle crime and traffic enforcement and Mayor Bloomberg’s apparent disinterest in asking the Chief to do something about it. Start a group for that.

  • Even prejudiced as I am, I have to acknowledge that not having seen the crash, I can’t say who was more at fault. But I did start (involuntarily) loudmouthing a bit about how “we have to stop automatically blaming the victim” to a cluster of cops standing nearby, and the one who answered me made it clear that blaming the victim in car-on-human violence is pretty much his philosophy on the subject.

    There was a Daily News reporter there (no story ran) who I asked a couple questions of, and he said the delivery guy apparently had a broken leg “and will be fine.”

  • Bravo, Dartley. I encourage you to get a copy of the MV-104A (crash report) from the precinct (that’ll be fun) and contact the cyclist who was hit. At the very least, what you find out will probably help expand your and your group’s cred. Wish I could help. Good luck.

  • One obvious problem is that delivery guys have such a bad reputation for riding recklessly that it’s easy to assume they’re to blame. Of course the probability that he has health insurance to pay for that broken leg is pretty slim and he’ll be out of work for quite some time. I hope his medical expenses are covered by no-fault.

  • Gal Friday

    Why detain someone who has presented a valid ID and can be contacted easily for further questioning?

  • Not being allowed to drive away is not the same as being detained.

  • momos

    I was hit by an SUV while riding my bike last August. My hospital bills are supposed to be paid by the driver’s insurance (still working on it). I’ve been told that in an auto-bike/ped accident there’s an automatic finding of no fault. This is to reduce law suits. The driver’s auto insurance is thus responsible for paying costs.

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