City streets ran red this week with the blood of citizens killed or maimed by the operators of the monstrous machines that just can't seem to share the road with the rest of us.
The week began on Sunday with the driver of a rogue garbage truck plowing into a cyclist, leaving him in critical condition.
It progressed (maybe regressed is a better word?) on Tuesday with the driver of a silver Lexus in Ozone Park killing a senior citizen who was a passenger in another car (before fleeing the scene on foot).
Also on Tuesday the driver of a gray Lexus SUV (something about that brand?) in Midwood mowed down 10-year-old Enzo Farachio as he stood on the sidewalk waiting for a bus.
Then, on Thursday, a worker fixing a city traffic light in Queens fell and died because a box-truck driver crashed into his cherrypicker.
Before our grizzled editor left for vacation 10 days ago, he noted that, with school starting, all the children who had left for the summer would return to town. And with the children back on the streets, he said, just you watch, drivers would start killing kids!
So sad. So true.
Last night, Brooklynites, city officials, and safe-streets activists held a vigil for the dead child, who was at least the 150th person killed in vehicle violence on the streets of New York City this year.
Yet even as the child's mother "sobbed uncontrollably" that her "baby... [was] ... not coming back,” Council Member Chaim Deutsch, who represents the district, refused to back any street-safety measures.
“I have to study it more,” he said blandly.
If only our leaders would attack this deadly epidemic with the same urgency that they recently attacked and vanquished the much-less-deadly measles.
In other news yesterday:
- An app to stop placard abuse? Technology could fix a pervasive problem, Emily Skandul opined in the Daily News.
- Cops and students got into a melee after a teen was hit by a taxi in Midtown. (NYP)
- A female Citi Bike user was violently assaulted by two men in Midtown on Monday night, Gothamist reported.
- The MTA is hiring of 500 new cops to fix "quality of life" issues. (Gothamist, NYP, others)
- NYPD is investigating the cop who smashed a teen's bike in the Bronx on Sunday. (Streetsblog)
- The subways have hit the highest on-time rate in six years, Andy Byford says. (NYP)
- The MTA's Inspector General says the authority's tracking of fare evasion is full of flaws. (AMNY, NYP)
- Bike New York — like Streetblog — is demanding that cyclists be free to ride over MTA bridges. (AMNY)
- And, finally, NJ Transit must move much more quickly from its dirty diesel fleet to electric buses, advocates urge. Gotta love any story that starts "Diesel buses stink..." (NJ.com)
