Pedestrian Victimized By A Hit-And-Run Driver Just Wants Cops To Do Their Job
First, he was run down by a driver. But the real indignity came later.
A pedestrian who was struck and nearly killed by a hit-and-run driver in Midtown in June learned later, after weeks of silence, that the NYPD had closed the case three months later — the latest evidence that the agency’s elite team of collision investigation detectives doesn’t even try to hold drivers accountable in the tens of thousands of non-fatal crashes every year.
In the case at hand, 26-year-old Vijay Bharadwaj was crossing W. 34th Street, with the light and in a crosswalk, at Dyer Avenue on June 23 when a driver making a right turn onto 34th Street slammed into him, knocking him to the pavement and running over part of his prostrate body, according to a video obtained by Streetsblog. (The video is below; it comes with a graphic warning.)
Bharadwaj recalled feeling the vehicle striking his head and its tires crush his midsection. He was unable to walk for six weeks after the crash.
“I couldn’t bear weight on one leg,” he told Streetsblog, later explaining that he had suffered a hip fracture. “My head hit the car and then pavement pretty hard, I had lacerations and bleeding and I had a cut on my right eye that I got stitches on.”
Only fatal crashes and a tiny portion of those with serious injuries get investigated by the NYPD’s elite Collision Investigation Squad, which is too small to conduct as many investigations as counterparts in other cities perform. As a result, this violent crash involving a criminal driver didn’t go to the CIS, but to Det. William Lleras of the 10th Precinct, who has just eight years on the force.
Lleras told Bharadwaj that he was optimistic that cops would find the driver and hold him accountable.
“He said he has a video,” Bharadwaj recalled, “and he told me, ‘This is an open-and-shut case. We’ll definitely find the guy.'”
Weeks later, however, Lleras shared the official report of the crash with Bharadwaj. The report had crucial errors. For instance, it did not mention that the vehicle was turning before the crash or that Bharadwaj was in the crosswalk.
Over the next two months, Bharadwaj repeatedly texted Lleras, but did not get a response. (Lleras told Streetsblog that he sometimes doesn’t carry his work phone when he’s not working, but a screenshot shared with Streetsblog shows that weeks and weeks would pass before Lleras would respond.)
Finally last week, Bharadwaj called the precinct and learned that the NYPD had closed the case. He said the desk sergeant claimed that the NYPD was only able to narrow down the search to 106 potential vehicles.
A spokesperson for the NYPD — who did not provide their name — defending the closing of the case.
“Without additional video and angles, investigators were not able to discern a license plate or a more distinct characteristic of the vehicle,” said the spokesperson, who did not respond to questions about the errors and lack of detail in the crash report.
Lleras told Streetsblog that he had identified the make, model and year of the car, but he was unable to get further. In a phone call with Streetsblog, Lleras said that he “used all the resources” available to precinct detectives.
“I spent a lot of time on that case,” he said, “but that’s just where it ended up.”
The NYPD’s elite crash investigation team, the Collision Investigation Squad, often spends six months to a year producing a detailed report about a crash. But the squad only investigates roughly 200 to 250 crashes per year.
That means it takes on many fewer investigations than similar units in other major cities like Chicago, where crash specialists examine almost all crashes that result in major injuries.
As of early last month, CIS had only investigated 179 cases this year: 140 fatalities and 39 crashes that resulted in serious injuries, even though there are thousands more serious cases that qualify for deeper dives.
Bharadwaj has been able to get some money from the state’s Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation to cover his injuries and the therapies he needed to recover his ability to walk. But he remains outraged that the driver who almost killed him won’t be brought to justice.
“Do I not deserve some sort of closure?” Bharadwaj asked. “Is it only if I pass away that the NYPD take a case like this seriously?”
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