Car Crash in Harlem Kills Pedestrian, Hospitalizes Five Others

The intersection of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard and 145th Street. Photo: ##http://www.google.com/maps?ll=40.82123,-73.938117&spn=0.009629,0.017917&z=16&iwloc=A&lci=com.google.webcams&layer=c&cbll=40.821601,-73.93899&panoid=rTJ4AVy25kTBDNeaJvj4hA&cbp=13,347.75,,0,-0.54##Google Street View##

One person is dead and at least five others have been hurt after a pick-up truck and livery cab collided at 145th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard in Harlem this afternoon. After impact, the truck driver jumped a curb and careened into an elderly woman and the man she was pushing in a wheelchair, according to a report on DNAinfo. The woman did not survive:

The 89-year-old woman, whose name was not immediately released, was rushed to Harlem Hospital where she was pronounced dead. The other victims were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital with injuries that were not considered life threatening.

The accident unfolded as a silver Lincoln Town Car headed north on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. tried to make a left turn onto W. 145th Street. The Toyota pickup going south on Adam Clayton Powell struck the sedan and spun out of control, cops said.

One witness told DNAinfo that the two pedestrians were “knocked right out of their shoes,” and another said the intersection is a constant source of anxiety: “It makes me nervous. Every day there’s an accident here. The mayor has to do something about it.”

ACP Boulevard and 145th Street both have terrible safety records. Image: CrashStat

Both streets are wide and dangerous: 145th has four travel lanes and ACP Boulevard has six, so the livery driver was apparently trying to find a gap to turn left across three lanes of moving traffic. Between 1995 and 2005, 65 pedestrians were injured and one killed at this intersection, according to CrashStat. A buffered bike lane was proposed for ACP Boulevard in 2009, but the proposal went nowhere after Manhattan Community Board 10 overturned its own transportation committee and voted against it.

“This horrifying crash underscores the deadly conditions prevailing on New York’s streets,” said Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely White. “Over 70,000 New Yorkers are injured by cars every year and hundreds more are killed. More people are actually killed by traffic in this city than are murdered by guns. It’s time to put pedestrians first and bring those numbers down to zero.”

  • D.

    If speeding is found to be a leading cause of the crash, and you can get data proving that reducing the number of lanes on a road reduces speeding, you can probably sue the community board.

  • Eric McClure

    Sad. Condolences to the survivors and the family and friends of the woman who was killed.

    Maybe Marcia Kramer can swing up that way and try to pin the tragedy on the pedestrian refuge island in the photo.

  • the speed funnel (aka ‘pedestrian refuge’) is one of the major causes of the speeding on that road. get rid of the speed funnel, add some cycle tracks, done. much safer street that actually allows people to get around by foot and bike in relative safety and comfort.

  • Ben K from Harlem

    I live up here in Harlem and I am saddened to hear of a neighbor’s death. I’m also not at all surprised. The streets in Harlem, especially the wide ones, are super scary.
    Even though the community board has been hostile to bicycle infrastructure, we must try again and again to make it safer uptown. Or….more needless deaths.

  • Should’ve put the bike lane in. Bike lane would make a buffer between cars and pedestrians, as well as a safer place to ride a bike.

  • I’d rather not be a buffer between a 4 ton vehicle and a pedestrian. Let’s put a parking protected bike lane up there and let the cars do the buffering themselves.
     
    Also, I can’t believe that the board is hostile to bike lanes. Bike are cheap, they’re a great way to get around the city, and they give people much needed exercise. With the poverty rates as well as the diabetes rates in Harlem, you’d think they’d be clamong to get lanes put in.

  • Notsotypnykr

    The board is hostile versus bike lanes because they need to be educated on the benefits they would provide, especially a protected lane. They only see a loss in parking/lanes but do not take into account most residents in the area do not drive and cons like: air pollution, congestion, accidents, ect. Ignorance. A huge problem across the city in general and more people need to educated the masses.

  • Oh yeah, I forgot to add pollution, especially seeing as poorer communities suffer disproportionately as people who don’t live there drive through their neighborhoods (often recklessly) to get to and from wherever they’re going.

    They need to be educated and that’s for sure – you can still keep (most) of your parking and your lanes, although they ‘ll be narrower. Which means the cars will be driving at safe speeds… the way they’re supposed to.

  • Not another one….

    Another crash on the same block!  CB10 needs to ask DOT for traffic calming asap.

    http://www.dnainfo.com/20110603/harlem/cyclist-struck-at-harlem-intersection-where-89yearold-died-thursday

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CB 10 Scales Back Adam Clayton Powell Safety Improvements [Updated]

By Noah Kazis |
Responding to the local community board, NYC DOT has shrunk its proposal for safety improvements on Harlem’s deadly Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard. The revised plan only covers half the distance initially proposed. And even with that concession, the board has yet to approve the plan to expand the road’s medians and slow speeding traffic. In […]