Curb Jumping

Another curb-jumping driver has killed a NYC pedestrian, and as usual no charges have been filed by NYPD.

A child who was struck by a curb-jumping motorist near a Maspeth school last Thursday died two days later. Parents this week vented to Council Member Elizabeth Crowley and DOT about unsafe conditions in the area. No charges have been filed against the driver by NYPD or Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, and after immediately declaring the crash an "accident," Crowley has had nothing to say about the investigation.

Two drivers, one of them unlicensed, collided at an intersection in Dyker Heights late Tuesday morning with sufficient force to send a pickup truck through a bus shelter where several people were waiting for the B4. James McCloskey, 71, was killed. NYPD says no one did anything wrong.

Ride a bike on a sidewalk in New York City and you are subject not only to a traffic ticket, but a criminal summons. Amazingly, there is no commensurate penalty for the curb-jumping motorist, despite the potential to inflict far greater harm, and countless deaths and injuries that occur every year. Unless intoxication is a factor, prosecutions are rare -- even for crashes that result in death -- possibly in part because the act of driving on a city sidewalk is itself not a crime.

NYPD says the Collision Investigation Squad is investigating the Thursday curb-jump crash that injured five children in Maspeth, but District Attorney Richard Brown's office says no subpoenas for cell phone records or EDR data have been issued, as police have determined there is "no criminality." At least three of the victims remain in the hospital with serious injuries.

A motorist dropping his child off at school jumped a curb and injured several students in Queens this morning, according to officials and published reports.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance's office is investigating Tuesday's Midtown curb-jump crash, which injured three people, including a woman who lost part of her leg.

[Update: According to Cy Vance's office, prosecutors are investigating this crash. We'll have another post shortly.]

Three pedestrians were injured, two seriously, this morning when a cab driver jumped a curb in a Midtown precinct where NYPD has issued 10 speeding tickets in the last year and a half.