More Street Carnage Yesterday

A woman had her legs crushed on Court Street at Atlantic yesterdsay:

A livery cab driver jumped a curb and smashed into a woman on the sidewalk before careening into the side of a Court Street building on Tuesday afternoon, according to police and an eyewitness.

The cabbie was heading down Court Street towards Carroll Gardens at 12:46 pm and was attempting to turn right onto Atlantic Avenue when he hopped the curb and took out a light pole, then slammed into the 29-year-old pedestrian and, subsequently, a building, cops said. A witness said the victim was “broken from the waist down.”

I'm still not clear on the role of the semi truck; I have seen two different descriptions of the collision: one where the truck struck the cab from the rear, and another where the truck was making a right turn from the left lane (as tractor trailers must do at most intersections) and the black car failed to yield.  I thought everyone knew that you don't ever want to pass a turning truck on the right.  Interestingly enough, there were also two separate tractor-trailer-on-car collisions snarling traffic on the Gowanus yesterday morning.  In each of those cases the tractor and car had collided during an attempted merge or lane change.  It was difficult to tell who was at fault in those crashes.

And this is just mind-boggling:

The unlicensed teen driver who fatally mowed down 4-year-old Ariel Russo while fleeing police last year was busted Sunday for allegedly dragging a cop 100 feet and nearly striking a pedestrian while driving illegally, the Daily News has learned.

Franklin Reyes, 18, was back on the road and once again trying to evade capture in Washington Heights after being stopped at W. 181st St. and Amsterdam Ave. [by] cops, who instructed the defiant accused killer to place the car in park, according to Reyes’ criminal complaint.

NYC is making strides with the Vision Zero program - and there is very clearly a lot more work to be done, both in the area of design and enforcement.  NYPD and TLC have big roles to play, and I hope they will continue to up their game to match the great work that DOT has been doing.  We've got to change the culture of our streets, and it will take a broad inter-disciplinary approach to do it.