As news spread yesterday that Kelly Hurley, 31, had died from injuries inflicted by a left-turning box truck driver at First Avenue and East 9th Street last week, her friends placed bouquets in her memory at the corner where she was struck.
Today, one block north of that memorial, officers from the Ninth Precinct were ticketing cyclists. Doug Gordon documented the sting on Twitter:
Gordon reports that police were citing cyclists for red light violations at 10th Street, where, he notes, a construction closure has eliminated conflicts between cyclists and cross traffic -- a favored tactic for police looking to nab people on bikes.
Red light running has nothing to do with the crash that claimed Hurley's life. She would have had a green when the truck driver ran her over, since the intersection design requires cyclists and turning drivers to negotiate the same space at the same time.
The local precinct in Sunnyside reacted the same way earlier this week, ticketing people on bikes after one cyclist was killed and another critically injured within 10 days:
A 2nd bicyclist hit at same Sunnyside intersection in 10 days. The reaction of @NYPD108Pct ? A bike ticketing blitz along 43rd & 34th Ave. pic.twitter.com/txfsfj9BRu
— Radlerkönigin (@radlerkoenigin) April 11, 2017
NYPD's stock response to motorists running over vulnerable people was also in full effect this January on Grand Street and Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn after a slew of traffic fatalities in the first two weeks of the year.
