A hit-and-run driver killed a pedestrian last night on a stretch of Broadway in the Bronx with a history of fatalities, and where motorists injured one person walking per week last year.
Daniel Cabrera was attempting to cross Broadway at W. 225th Street in Marble Hill at around 7 p.m. yesterday when he was struck by the driver of a Dodge Magnum station wagon, according to the Daily News. The driver did not stop. Cabrera, 38, died at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Reaction to Cabrera's death has largely focused on the fact that the driver left the scene. “When a driver flees the scene of an accident without reporting the incident or aiding the individual they've hit, they not only breaking the law but disregarding the well-being of others and their moral responsibility to aid them,” said a statement from local Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez. “In our city we cannot tolerate these callous actions.”
Hit-and-run collisions are an epidemic in New York City -- thanks in part to Albany's failure to make penalties more severe -- but street conditions where this crash occurred should not be ignored as a contributing factor.
Cabrera was hit just north of the Manhattan Bridge, on a stretch of Broadway both teeming with people and overrun by speeding traffic. Stores and restaurants line Broadway from W. 225th to W. 240th Street, which borders Van Cortlandt Park. It's dark and loud due to the elevated 1 train. Crossings are long, and drivers speed with impunity. The 50th Precinct issued just 450 speeding tickets in 2014, according to NYPD data.
CBS 2 reported that Cabrera worked at Columbia University and was headed to the Metro-North station on W. 225th Street when he was hit.
With train tracks above, the area where the collision occurred is known for having a lot of traffic and being dangerous for pedestrians.
“That’s why I always cross on that side,” one man said. “I can’t cross on this side. I be too scared.”
Reports say the driver who killed Cabrera was traveling south on Broadway, toward Manhattan. (Though Marble Hill is considered part of Manhattan politically, it is on the north side of the Harlem River.) In addition to the nearby Metro-North stop, there is a 1 train station and a heavily-used bus stop for the Manhattan-bound Bx7 and Bx20 buses at Broadway and W. 225th, steps from where Cabrera was struck.
Motorists injured 58 pedestrians on Broadway between W. 225th and W. 240th in 2014, according to DOT. Data mapped on Transportation Alternatives' CrashStat show that drivers killed eight pedestrians and injured dozens more on this segment of Broadway between 1995 and 2009.
Hazards for Broadway pedestrians aren’t limited to the Bronx. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign consistently ranks Broadway among the city’s most dangerous streets in terms of total pedestrian fatalities. DOT designated Broadway an Arterial Slow Zone in Manhattan north of 59th Street in 2014, and named it a "priority corridor" in the Manhattan pedestrian safety action plan (though Broadway was not singled out for improvements in the DOT's Bronx pedestrian safety report). To be a safer street, Broadway will need physical infrastructure upgrades, like shorter crossings and protected bike lanes, on both sides of the Harlem River.
