Sure, we're quick to criticize the local press for calling reckless driving crashes "accidents" or for cars, not people, kill pedestrians, but when we see a great story, we're the first to raise a glass.
That story was the Daily News wood yesterday: Tom Tracy's well researched and written piece about New York State law basically protects killer drivers from facing real punishment.
The nut graph? "Preliminary data for 2021 show that 74,627 vehicular crashes in the city involving pedestrians, bicyclists and other motorists were reported to the NYPD [killing] 276 people and [injuring] 38,479. The NYPD’s collision investigation squad found 110 of them — less than half — were criminal acts. Detectives made 70 arrests. Of those, 10 drivers faced charges of vehicular homicide, vehicular manslaughter and vehicular manslaughter in the second degree, which are punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
"The remaining 60 people busted were hit with low-level felonies or misdemeanor crimes such as leaving the scene of an accident, failing to yield to a pedestrian and reckless endangerment. That means vehicular homicide or vehicular manslaughter charges were brought in 3.6 percent of the crashes investigated by the collision investigation squad last year."
We've obviously written a lot about this, and don't think putting people in prison should be the default reaction to crashes, but Tracy's story was a winner for pointing out at least one of the problems that pedestrians, cyclists and motorists face: lack of accountability for the most reckless drivers among us.
In other news:
- The Daily News followed our story about the DOT's accelerated road diet plan for Hylan Boulevard after Sunday's fatal crash, plus added the usual tabloid post-mortem. The Post covered the road diet — albeit from Republican Joe Borelli's shameful perspective that road redesigns are merely photo ops — and also shed the standard tabloid tears over the "accident."
- Whatever it takes to stop wealthy helicopter moguls from polluting our skies with smoke and noise, we're on board with. (NY Post)
- Former Mayor de Blasio, currently struggling to win a step-down to Congress, defended his ferry system from a report from Comptroller Brad Lander. (amNY)
- Greg B. Smith continued his savage coverage of NYCHA, but rather than blaming the housing authority for taking so long to ban e-bikes, we would have wanted him to address the issue of what hard-working tenants are supposed to do if their landlord bans their mode of transport (while still leaving parking lots full of dangerous cars). (The City)
- We'd like to know a lot more about the death of this e-bike rider, but the Post only offered scant details from police.
- Stars — they're just like us (except they don't go to Dafonte's, even when on a bike in Red Hook! What's up with that?). (GQ)
- What should you do in case of a nuclear attack? There's now a useless PSA for that. (amNY)
- The Police Athletic League is back in the playstreet business. (amNY)
- Whatever happened to Mayor Adams's promise to look into cops who just lallygag on their phones? What do you think? (The City)
- And, finally, Streetfilms auteur Clarence Eckerson Jr. posted a short clip about how much he loves the improvements to the best open street in town:
