“No Criminality Suspected” Stencils Spotlight Lack of Traffic Justice

Last night, a group of activists traveled to the sites of eight traffic fatalities and stenciled paint memorials for those who lost their lives walking or biking in crashes for which NYPD declared “no criminality suspected” within hours of the crash. This morning, Time’s Up! led a memorial bike ride to the eight crash sites.

In a plea for justice from Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, the stencil memorials ask, “Why, Ray, Why?”

Memorials were stenciled for:

• Mike Rogalle, killed on the sidewalk by an SUV driver who jumped the curb on Beekman Street in Lower Manhattan last April.
• An unidentified woman, who was struck and killed by a private dump truck driver in January while she was biking on East 23rd Street near Madison Avenue.
• Mir Hossain, a taxi driver who was standing next to his vehicle in January when a speeding SUV driver rear-ended his double-parked cab, sending him flying to the ground and killing him.
• An unidentified woman, killed in February after a two-car crash sent one of the vehicles onto the sidewalk at Third Avenue and East 27th Street, where she was standing.
• Rubin Baum, killed in September by a driver who ran a red light at Park Avenue and East 59th Street. Baum pushed his wife out of the way of the oncoming driver, saving her life before he was pinned beneath the vehicle.
• Ryo Oyamada, killed by the driver of an NYPD cruiser on 40th Avenue near 10th Street in Queensbridge in February.
• Martha Atwater, killed by a pickup truck driver on the sidewalk at the corner of Clinton Street and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn in February.
• Tenzin Drudak, killed by a distracted driver on the sidewalk at 30th Street and Thompson Avenue in Long Island City on Monday.

In all of these cases, NYPD declared there was “no criminality suspected” of the driver. While NYPD has recently modified how it handles crash investigations, results have yet to be seen.