Cab Driver Kills Man in UES Precinct Where NYPD and Ben Kallos Target Cyclists

A motorist killed a senior at the same intersection in 2016. The 19th Precinct, meanwhile, has made a show of seizing electric bikes delivery workers need to earn a living.

A cab driver killed Manikam Srymanean at an Upper East Side intersection Saturday, in an NYPD precinct where police concentrate enforcement resources on delivery cyclists. Image: WCBS
A cab driver killed Manikam Srymanean at an Upper East Side intersection Saturday, in an NYPD precinct where police concentrate enforcement resources on delivery cyclists. Image: WCBS

A yellow cab driver ran over and killed a man in an Upper East Side crosswalk Saturday. While in the last two years motorists have killed at least 10 people walking in the 19th Precinct, where the crash occurred, the precinct has prioritized ticketing cyclists and confiscating e-bikes from delivery workers, in collaboration with local City Council Member Ben Kallos.

Manikam Srymanean, 51, was crossing at the intersection of York Avenue and E. 78th Street when he was struck at around 9:30 Saturday night, according to NYPD and published reports. As of earlier today the NYPD public information office had no details on how the collision occurred. Gothamist reported that the cab driver was turning left. Police told the Post Srymanean “was in the crosswalk and had the green light.”

From WCBS:

“When the cab came around the corner, it hit a guy,” said the [cab driver’s] passenger, named Thomas. “He went on the hood, the car accelerated a bit, and then the guy slid down the hood and went under the car.”

Srymanean, known to locals as Mano, lived near the crash site and worked at a neighborhood deli. “I know him more than 25 years,” a deli customer told WCBS. “He’s a very generous guy. He was always giving a good hand to everybody, known and unknown.”

Srymanean was pronounced dead at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

The NYPD public information office said the crash investigation was still open, but police sources told the Post the driver, whose identity was shielded, won’t be charged. Unless the driver is convicted of a traffic offense, in all likelihood he or she will remain in good standing with the Taxi and Limousine Commission, even if the deceased victim was walking with the right of way.

Pedestrian Andrea Kremen, 68, was fatally struck by a motorist making a right turn at York Avenue and E. 78th Street in January 2016. According to crash data tracked by Streetslog, of 10 pedestrians killed by motorists in the 19th Precinct in the last 24 months, seven were known or believed to have been walking with the right of way. Police charged the driver in only one of those cases.


While motorists continue killing people, the 19th Precinct concentrates much of its traffic enforcement resources on bike-riding delivery workers. In recent weeks the precinct took to Twitter to boast about seizing electric-assist bikes that people use to make a living.

The precinct’s skewed priorities are encouraged by Kallos, who regularly complains about cyclist behavior but rarely speaks up when a driver takes a life in his district.

“We got to do something,” Upper East Side resident Erik Scotsman told WCBS after Saturday’s fatal crash. “You know, streets have to be safe to walk.”

  • Vooch

    attached is vision zero map of a few months of UES traffic violence

    horrifying

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0442e34582153e3bb30a0658a7a6cf32c895a6a985ed3c3e680cb30a5153519a.jpg

  • Ken Dodd

    Will we ever have a mayor who has the balls and moral fortitude to take on the NYPD and the criminal justice system in New York? They are point blank refusing to protect innocent New Yorkers at this point – using your car as a weapon is currently a perfectly legitimate way of murdering someone. I don’t even know why I bother paying my taxes for these idiots.

  • Kathy van Voorhees

    I live right near there can see the spot he was hit from my windows. Mano was the sweetest, most generous person you could ever meet. It’s just so sad. Since Sunday there has been a memorial by his store and where he was hit that has attracted a constant crowd of neighbors. His co-worker witnessed the crash and told me the cab driver was speeding as he was turning left from E78th onto York. There is nothing there that would have blocked his line of vision and while it was dark at the time the corner is very well lit. I don’t understand why the driver wasn’t charged. I’ve been seeing a lot of patrol cars around since Sunday but that will stop shortly and they’ll be back to harassing cyclists. Nothing ever changes. In addition to the two people killed on the block in the past 15 mo a cab driver jumped the curb and crashed into a store in the day after Thanksgiving. If it hadn’t been a holiday for sure there would have been serious injuries or deaths as that area is always crowded with people. http://nypost.com/2016/11/25/out-of-control-cab-hops-curb-hits-pedestrian/ 2 1/2 yrs ago another cab driver plowed into a store right across the street. http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Taxi-Crashes-Into-Upper-East-Side-Store-Yorkville-265912311.html

  • JudenChino

    It’s because they don’t give a fuck. Because they’re afraid of traffic congestion. They’d rather rant about bike near misses then do anything about the vehicles that regularly kill and maim because, the powers that be, use those very vehicles to get around and so they internalize the concerns of the powerful (literally, a car) over the interests of the vulnerable. Garodnik and Kellos are good on most issues. But here they’re absolute failures and deserve calling out because they’re the ones who can fix it. And people keep dying. That’s the saddest. These deaths are absolutely 100% preventable. Taxis literally never need to take a turn so quick that it kills someone. Never. But there’s little incentive to comply. Human decency? The hack is facing a slap on the wrist for killing someone where it was 100% their fault. I mean it, if you want to murder someone in this city, just do it in a car. I’d never do that of course, but if someone wants to pull some Strangers on a Train type shit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangers_on_a_Train_(novel), you can do this and face zero consequences. Also, if you want to park a car bomb in Times Square, just put a NYPD vest on the dash. You can park all day no problem.

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