Unusual Accident Kills Pedestrian Walking to Store
When you take an evening walk or walk to the store, you likely don’t think that you’ll be the victim of a car accident, and you certainly don’t think it will be the last walk you take. But, one woman in upstate New York took her final walk last week on her way from the store.
According to the Associated Press, 35-year old Tabitha Harris was walking home from the store in Manchester when she became the victim of an unusual accident. Ms. Harris was not hit randomly by a lone car, but was the victim of a two-vehicle accident. She happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A van traveling on the road crossed the center line and struck an SUV pulling a trailer. The SUV lost control, and the trailer they were pulling hit Harris.
The van driver was ticketed for failing to keep right and the investigation is ongoing. Continue reading
Van Jumps Curb, Hits Children
Five young girls were all hospitalized following a frightening accident that happened as they played outside. According to the Nyack-Piermont Patch, the girls were playing in the driveway of their home when a van owned by Five Star Medical Supplies jumped the curb and hit all five of them. All five were transported to area hospitals.
Three of the five girls are related, two are sisters and the third is a cousin. Four of them are nine years old and one is seven. A few were seriously injured.
Christopher St. Lawrence, the Ramapo Town Supervisor, and Police Chief Peter Brower credit one paramedic with saving at least one of the girls’ life. When arriving on the scene, she did not have a pulse and was not breathing. Paramedic Jacob Goldmunzer provided care to all five girls at the scene. Workers had all of them loaded on ambulances and being transported within only 10 minutes of their arrival.
Officials are calling Goldmunzer’s actions heroic. Continue reading
Upstate School Bus Accident Kills Two
Thousands of people put their kids on school buses every morning, trusting that their children will arrive at school safely and be carried home again unharmed. But school bus accidents seem relatively common, and often end tragically.
Just this past week, a school bus in Montezuma upstate, was involved in a crash with two cars. Two people died as a result.
According to News Channel 9 (local ABC News channel), the bus and another car were traveling south on State Road 90 when a car traveling in the opposite direction crossed the center line. That car hit the driver’s side of the bus and struck the other car head on.
One person from each car was killed. Two people were airlifted to Upstate University Hospital and one student was taken to Geneva Hospital with minor injuries. Continue reading
Lincoln Tunnel Bus Accident Injures Several, Delays Commuters
The Lincoln Tunnel was closed for several hours Monday morning after two buses collided, sending several passengers to area hospitals. According to the Pocono Record, a Martz Trailways bus rear-ended a New Jersey Transit bus near the tunnel entrance.
The crash happened at about 7:15 am and the tunnel was not reopened until about 10:30, seriously delaying some commuters. Fortunately, the sustained injuries in the bus accident were not life-threatening.
Both buses had to be towed from the scene. The Martz bus had originated in Tobyhanna at 5:15 and stopped in Mount Pocono to pick up more passengers before the accident. The NJ Transit bus was a Route 168 bus from Paramus to the Port Authority station in NYC. That bus had 45 passengers on board, while the number aboard the Martz bus was unknown.
Two passengers were seriously injured and three were taken out of the buses, strapped to backboards. Continue reading
Editorial Suggests Auto Accidents Should be Just as Big of a Concern as Gun Violence
A blog post on Streets Blog indicates that New York City officials are focusing too much on gun violence, when auto accidents cause many more deaths and injuries each year. The columnist, Brad Aaron, suggests that officials should rethink their approach in keeping New Yorkers alive, focusing on preventable accidents instead.
The post was spurred by an announcement of 16 people being indicted in illegal gun trafficking. A statement from the city remarked that there had been 127 shootings in Manhattan this year thus far. Nineteen of which resulted in fatalities.
But, counters Aaron, last year 26 pedestrians and cyclists were killed in the city and more than 2,500 were injured. With a higher fatality rate, he says, the city should be focusing here to make NYC a safer place for everyone.
Through August of this year, someone died in New York City traffic about every 30 hours, on average, and an injury occurred every 14 seconds. There is no concerted effort between city prosecutors and NYPD to get those numbers down, or to ensure that victims get justice. To the contrary, few crashes are even investigated. Continue reading
How NYC Prevents Sidewalk Accidents
The City of New York knows that cracked or poorly maintained sidewalks are an accident waiting to happen. And they also know that they have a responsibility to maintain these pedestrian thoroughfares. But, how do they go about preventing these accidents and what more can be done?
According to the NYC Department of Transportation’s homepage, there are 12,750 miles of sidewalks in the city. The DOT’s goal is to make all of them safe for people walking around the city and to prevent injuries. To this end, they replace more than 2 million square feet of sidewalks each year.
Most of this replacement work is done on city property and in residential areas. But, some of this replacement work is done when property owners fail to step up to the plate themselves.
A sidewalk law passed in the past few years shifts some responsibility of sidewalk maintenance to property owners. Continue reading