Traffic Justice

Traffic safety advocates were heartened last month by news that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance will make good on his campaign promise to devote more resources to investigating acts of vehicular violence. Vance has also pledged to get behind legislation, like Hayley and Diego's law, that would reduce the number of obstacles faced by law enforcement when seeking justice for those who have been injured and killed at the hands of reckless motorists. (We would add the proposed federal "black box" standard to the list of sorely-needed legislative actions.)

While Albany dithers over bus lane cameras, there’s encouraging movement in Washington on a different automated-enforcement front: a rule to equip new cars with "black boxes" capable of recording up to 60 seconds worth of pre-crash data.

During last year's campaign for Manhattan District Attorney, Cy Vance came out with a broad traffic safety platform, promising to beef up investigations into deaths caused by drivers. Many of those commitments turned into official policy today, as Vance announced a significant expansion of the DA's vehicular crimes unit. Vance also pledged to support state and local legislation to help reduce the threat of dangerous driving on New York City streets.

Michael Oxley, the driver who killed 18-year-old cyclist Jake McDonaugh on Flatbush Avenue in April, pled not guilty to five charges -- including criminally negligent homicide -- at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court yesterday. He is currently out on bail, which the judge set at $75,000. The next court date is set for July 15.

The driver who killed a cyclist on Flatbush Avenue yesterday has been charged with criminally negligent homicide by the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes. Image: NY1 The cyclist, 18-year-old Jake McDonaugh from Windsor Terrace, was riding east on Duryea Place, according to witnesses. When he entered the intersection at Flatbush Avenue, Michael Oxley, … Continued

With at least six crashes leaving three injured and two pedestrians and a cyclist dead, it has been a particularly hellish week to walk and bike the streets of New York. And while information about such incidents is vital to making conditions safer and preventing future fatalities, NYPD continues to withhold crash reports from the public.

When does just plain bad driving cross the line and become criminally negligent driving? According to the State of New York, almost never. As advocates and legal experts will tell you, our laws make it notoriously difficult to bring appropriate charges against those who cause serious injury or death with their cars. But a decision [PDF] handed down by the state Court of Appeals should give prosecutors an important new tool.

This week Sarah has pointed to two bloggers making the case for the removal of both "avid cyclist" and "alternative transportation" from the livable streets lexicon. When it comes to media write-ups of traffic crashes, we nominate "freak accident" to the list of terms slated for obsolescence.

We couldn't help notice that, while police information czar Paul Browne was seemingly chatting up every media outlet in town about his boss coming to the aid of a fallen pedestrian this week, we were adding two letters to our stack of NYPD freedom of information rejections.