Politics & Government
Lawbreaking Drivers Cause of Most Pedestrian and Biker Deaths: Report
The Transportation Alternatives report calls for more NYPD oversight into crash investigations.
Transportation Alternatives released a new report this week, which found that three out of five fatal pedestrian and bicyclist crashes are the result of illegal driving behavior.
“The New York City Police Department is failing to hold these drivers accountable,” said said Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. “There needs to be an overhaul of the NYPD’s traffic enforcement practices to make sure the police protect New Yorkers from the lethal danger of lawbreaking drivers.”
According to the report’s analysis of New York State Department of Transportation data, 60 percent of fatal pedestrian and bicyclist crashes with known causes were caused by illegal driver behavior between 1995 and 2009. Between 2001 and 2010, illegal driving behavior was the cause of 1,745 pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in New York City.
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A request for comment from the NYPD was not immediately returned.
Last month, , which calls for a task force to overhaul the NYPD’s traffic enforcement and crash investigation procedures.
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Councilmembers Brad Lander, D-Brooklyn, and James Vacca, D-Bronx, said they want to see more oversight into the NYPD’s traffic safety enforcement and accident investigation protocols.
Currently, the NYPD’s Accident Investigation Squad has 19 trained investigators, who handled 304 cases in 2011. They are only called to a scene if a victim is dead or “likely to die,” .
