The Weekly Carnage

The Weekly Carnage: "

The Weekly Carnage is a Friday round-up of motor vehicle mayhem
across the metro region. For more on the origins and purpose of this
column, please read About the Weekly Carnage.

Fatal Crashes (21 Killed Since 11/20, 289 This Year*, 26 Drivers Charged**)

• SI: Unlicensed Hit-and-Run Driver With History of Suspensions Kills Elderly Couple (NYT, News, Post)
  


• Bronx: Unlicensed Hit-and-Run Driver Runs Down Woman in Front of Fiance (News, Post, NY1, WABC)


• Related: Illegal Drivers Killing With Impunity; Whither Bloomberg and Kelly? (Streetsblog 1, 2)
  


• Brooklyn: Woman Hit by Turning Bus Driver in Bergen Beach; No Charges (Post, NY1)


• Brooklyn: Two-Car Collision Ends With Pedestrian, 87, Pinned to Light Pole (News, Post)


• Manhattan: Driver Killed in Late-Night Henry Hudson Parkway Crash (Post [7th Item])


• SI: Man Run Over by Dump Truck-Driving Co-Worker at Road Construction Site (Advance 1, 2)
  


• Smithtown, LI: Girl, 11, Killed in Front of Her Mother in Hit-and-Run (WCBS, AP)


• Hauppauge, LI: 1 Killed, 4 Injured in DWI Rollover Crash (Newsday 1, 2)
  


• Huntington, LI: One 19-Year-Old Killed, 1 Injured When Driver Slams Into Parked Truck (AP)


• Central Islip, LI: 2 Charged With DWI After Collision Kills Passenger (Newsday 1, 2)


• Franklin Square, LI: Motorcyclist Killed in Hit-and-Run Crash (AP)


• Ridgefield, CT: Teen Killed When Car Strikes Tree (CT Post)
  


• Shelton, CT: 2 Teens Killed in When Car Strikes Tree (CT Post)


• Oxford, CT: Driver Dies in Head-On Collision (CT Post)
  


• Newark: Hit-and-Run Driver Kills Pedestrian (S-L)
  


• Perth Amboy, NJ: Driver Charged With Homicide After Jumping Curb, Striking Pedestrian (S-L)


• Toms River, NJ: Man Killed Walking on Ped-Heavy Street Known for Hazards (S-L 1,2; WBJ)
  


• Toms River, NJ: 1 Killed in Rear-End Collision (S-L)
  


• Linden, NJ: Man Falls From Horse Trailer on Jersey Turnpike (S-L)
  


• Lebanon, NJ: Motorcyclist Rear-Ends One Car, Hit by Another (S-L 1, 2)

Photo: New York Shitty

Injuries, Arrests and Property Damage

• Queens: Another Off-Duty Cop Arrested for DWI (AP) 


• Queens: Several Hurt in Middle Village School Bus Crash; CM Crowley Blames Unsafe Street (News)


• Brooklyn: 2 Seriously Injured in Possible Williamsburg Police Chase (NY1, Post)
  


• Brooklyn: SUV on Sidewalk After Greenpoint Collision (New York Shitty)
  


• Brooklyn: Truck Driver Wedges Rig Under Q Tracks in Midwood (Gothamist)


• Brooklyn: Collision With Ambulance Leaves Car on Flatlands Sidewalk (Post)
  


• Brooklyn: One Hurt in Two-Car Flatlands Crash (Post)
  


• Brooklyn: Cyclist Assaulted by Cop in 2008 Arrested for Damaging Car (Post)


• Corrections Officer Presumed Dead After Fleeing Traffic Stop, Jumping Off GW Bridge (Gothamist)


• SI: Unlicensed Driver Flees Scene After Three-Car Collision (Post [5th Item])
  


• Patchogue, LI: Dad Caught Driving Drunk With 5-Year-Old Daughter in Car (News)


• West Islip, LI: Teen Passenger Seriously Injured When Friend Hits Tree (Newsday)
  


• Linden, NJ: 18-Year-Old Ped Hit, Seriously Hurt; No Charges (S-L)


• Millville, NJ: 18-Year-Old Stuck Under Car for Nine Hours After Crash (News)


• Lebanon, NJ: Texting 18-Year-Old Hits Pole (Hunterdon CD)
  

Following Up

• Carmen Huertas Goes to Court; Victims Raising Money for Her Defense (News 1, 2)


• Related: Post-Leandra's Law, Albany Needs to Protect All Reckless Driving Victims (Streetsblog)


• Upgraded Charges Could Put Det. Kevin Spellman in Jail for 25 Years (City Room)
  


• Manhattan: Assaulted Cyclist Ray Bengen Cleared, But Not His Alleged Assailant (Streetsblog)
  


• East Meadow, LI: Manslaughter, Homicide Charges Added in Case of August DWI Ped Deaths (AP)
  


• Attorney Says Taconic Crash Victim Survived Initial Impact (Newsday)


• New Brunswick, NJ: Despite DOT Assurances, Road Where 15-Year-Old Died Still Ped Deathtrap (S-L)

Tiger's route to infamy. Image: New York Post

Out of Town

• Millville, NJ: 13-Year-Old Girl Hit, Cops Deliver Ticket to Hospital (AP)
  


• Fairfield, AL: 10 Hit Outside Middle School; 9 Kids Injured, Woman Dies (AP)


• Seattle, WA: Pedestrian Gravely Injured by Two Trying to Tow Car With Nylon Rope (Times)


• Port Carbon, PA: Suspected DWI Woman Plows Into Daycare Center Full of Kids (WNEP)


• San Francisco: Family of 4 Killed in Collision; Burglars Plunder Home (AP)
  


• Dinwiddie, VA: Crash Kills Miley Cyrus Tour Bus Driver (AP)


• Ventura, CA: "Pulp Fiction" Writer, DWI Killer Roger Avary Caught Tweeting From Prison (NYT)


• Orlando, FL: Tiger Woods Charged With Careless Driving, Adultery After One-Car Crash (Post 1, 2)
  

Trends

• Philly Media Unload on Cyclists After Ped Deaths; Killer Drivers, Carry On (City Room, P. Weekly)
  


• Orlando, FL Officials Blame Pedestrians for Their Deplorable Mortality Rate (WESH)


• Colorado DOT Develops BAC Estimator for iPhone (Post)


• Beyond DC: Since We're Talking Health Care, What About 40,000 Annual Road Deaths?

* Since the week of June 8
** Drivers charged for deaths since the week of June 8, based on latest available reports

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Unlicensed Drivers, Coddled By the Law, Kill Three More New Yorkers

Unlicensed Drivers, Coddled By the Law, Kill Three More New Yorkers: "

In handing down a prison term of 20-to-life for Auvryn Scarlett, the garbage hauler who had stopped taking his epilepsy medication before suffering a seizure behind the wheel and killing two pedestrians last year, Justice Richard Carruthers described the convicted as "a time bomb ready to explode at any moment on the streets of New York." The same could be said of the countless number of motorists roaming the city at any given moment though their licenses have been suspended or revoked due to a history of recklessness. Two such drivers killed three people in separate crashes over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Peter and Lillian Sabados. Photo via Daily News

Sheldon Reid had a prior conviction for driving without a license when he struck 40-year-old Sonya Powell, as her fiance watched in horror, on Baychester Avenue in the Wakefield section of the Bronx last Friday. Forty-eight hours earlier, elderly husband and wife Peter and Lillian Sabados were run down by a hit-and-run driver as they walked to Thanksgiving Mass. Their killer, 26-year-old Allmir Lekperic, had a string of at least 29 license suspensions since 2006, according to the Times.

Clearly, Powell and the Sabadoses aren't just victims of individuals, but institutional failure. Even in those relatively rare instances when the system identifies drivers who are a menace, there is no mechanism to stop them from getting right back behind the wheel. Revoking a license is no deterrent. In both cases this weekend, incarceration, or at the very least the impounding of vehicles, could have saved lives.

These crimes also expose a failure of political leadership. Regardless
of the toll recidivist illegal drivers continue to exact in death and
misery, Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly have shown no
apparent interest. As for the City Council, a resolution urging state
action was unceremoniously dismissed
just days after nine-year-old Ibrihim Ahmed was killed by an unlicensed driver last January, and has not seen
action since. A cursory Streetsblog archive search revealed three
additional local fatalities at the hands of unlicensed drivers in the
interim eleven months, including pedestrians Dorothea Wallace and 9-year-old Joshua Ganzfried.

We commented last week that, while a positive step, the relatively narrow focus of Leandra's Law leaves New Yorkers, adults and kids alike, unprotected from dangerous drivers whose negligence does not involve alcohol or drugs. As reported by Gotham Gazette, a law prompted by the death of Ibrihim Ahmed would attach stiffer penalties to the prevalent and often deadly crime of driving without a license. The bill, sponsored by Assembly Member Robert Sweeney, would classify vehicular assault and manslaughter as felonies in cases where a driver's license has been suspended or revoked. This would mark a major shift for New York State in that it would apply in instances of crashes where the driver is not under the influence.

When Alexander Aponte was charged only for driving without a license in the killing of Ahmed, we asked Queens DA Richard Brown's office for an explanation. "What we do is charge by the laws on the books," a spokesperson said. "If Albany
changes the law based on a victim's injury or death, we would change
the way we charge." In the absence of guidance from the mayor, police commissioner and City Council members, perhaps future Public Advocate Bill de Blasio or Manhattan DA Cy Vance could fill the void by joining Assembly Member Sweeney and others in a serious campaign to keep unlicensed drivers off our streets by adopting "Ibrihim's Law," before it's too late for someone else's child, fiance, or grandparents.

As for Allmir Lekperic, the Daily News reports that he is free to drive again. For bringing two lives to a brutal premature end, Lekperic was charged with leaving the scene and driving without a license.

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State legislature vows license plate fee repeal

State legislature vows license plate fee repeal: "

Remember the halcyon days of late last week when Gov. David Paterson announced a new plan to replace every New York license plate while charging $25 a car? At the time, state officials claimed that the reflectivity of our current blue plates had run its course and also that the $25 charge would help draw in $129 million over two years.

At the time, I called the fee a pure and simple money grab. Up nearly $20 per car over the 2001 plate replacement fees, the state was simply trying to make money, and I believed that if the outrage over this fee was not at least as loud as the protests over the MTA’s payroll tax, something would be rotten in the state of New York.

Well, now that the state legislature is promising to repeal the fee, I got my wish but for all the wrong reasons. As Michael Grynbaum explores in The Times today, car owners raised a stink because they can’t be bothered to pay for their driving. These upstate drivers claim urban dwellers benefit. Writes Grynbaum:

Leaders in both chambers of the Legislature said they expected to repeal the mandatory charge before April 1, when it was scheduled to go into effect. Lawmakers said they planned to find another way to raise the $130 million in annual revenue that would have been generated, but none offered any immediate ideas.

The fee, up from $5.50 in 2001, had been raised in part to generate more revenue amid the fiscal crisis. Drivers would have received a redesigned plate with a more reflective surface.

But upstate officials argued that they were being forced to pay a charge that city dwellers, who often use mass transit, could avoid. The fee’s demise came a day before a planned protest outside the Capitol.

Considering how New York City subsidizes the rest of the state and considering the price we pay environmentally and socially for driving, that claim is a baseless one. In fact, over at Streetsblog, one commenter highlights the hypocrisy. “Doesn’t anyone in Albany have the brains or the guts to point out that NYC residents, while they may be better positioned to ‘avoid’ the $25 plate surcharge, already pay more than their fair share for road upkeep and mass transit infrastructure, all of which is used to varying degrees by upstate residents whining about $25/car/yr?” BicyclesOnly asked. Of course they don’t.

I’ve never been a complete anti-car evangelic. In the right circumstances, automobiles have their places in society. Yet, sound investment in mass transit and public transportation is vital to New York’s future success and the overall health of our state and nation. Even if we doubt the sincerity of a replacement license plate plan and see through the fees as a blatant money grab, we shouldn’t allow drivers to avoid paying the costs of driving. Maybe city dwellers don’t have to pay the license plate fee, but we have to pay a far greater share of fees and taxes than those upstaters do. Albany shouldn’t lose sight of that reality.

©2009 Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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If There's Cash, Paterson May Rethink License Plate Fee

If There's Cash, Paterson May Rethink License Plate Fee: "

Naturally, not many people are happy with the state's decision to change license plates and charge $25 in the process. Governor Paterson said he'd nix the fee—if there was some other way to generate $129 million, 'I'm optimistic I can find a way to replace the $129 million hole -- and I'll reconsider it. I'll go back and take a look at the license plates because it has upset so many people... What I would like is help figuring out how to replace it.' So, we guess that the DMV's explanation that the license plates had to be changed for safety reasons is BS, then?

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New NY State License Plate Revealed—And Required On All Cars

New NY State License Plate Revealed—And Required On All Cars: "

Perhaps nostalgic for the license plates of yore as well as being desperate for revenue, NY State rolled out a new license plate redesign that will be required for pretty much all vehicles, new and old, starting next year. The 'Empire Gold' license plate, in gold with dark blue lettering, will replace the current white plate with the Niagara falls and city skyline elements and the cost will be another $25 for registration renewals and new registrations. Plus, if you want to your current letter and number license combination, that'll be another $20!

The State Department of Motor Vehicles says, 'Periodically re-issuing plates is important for overall safety, law enforcement and the general integrity of the plate. License plate visibility tends to decrease as license plates lose their reflectivity and become marred and damaged from use. The legibility and reflectivity of the current Empire plate, which was issued beginning in 2001, was only guaranteed for up to 5 years. Current plates will have been in use for 10-11 years by the time they are replaced by the new Empire Gold plates.' Safety and law enforcement aside, over $120 million will be raised by the license plate change, which will then go into a general state fund. The switch will start in April; more details from the DMV here.

An upstate county clerk against the change told the NY Times, "You really don’t need reflective material on your license plate with all the new cars — they’ve got plenty of reflectors and running lights on the side. It’s really a burden. We need to take a stand for the people." Another said that upstate was being unfairly targeted, "We need cars to get to schools, doctor’s appointments, grocery stores. There’s no other way to get around. A car is our livelihood."

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AccidentSketch Helps You Create Detailed Accident Reports [Driving]

AccidentSketch Helps You Create Detailed Accident Reports [Driving]: "

Accidents happen to even the most cautious drivers. If you find yourself in one, AccidentSketch is a simple web-based tool that can help you draw up a picture and generate a report to give to your insurance company.

AccidentSketch uses a simple template system. Cars, road segments, signs, pedestrians, and more all snap to the grid and in the case of small objects like signs can be moved from there. You can change the colors of things, zoom in and out to get as close or wide as you need, and even assign information to parties involved like the license plate numbers of the cars in the accident.

Once you create a diagram you can also generate a text-based report to fill in details that can't be easily conveyed by the picture. When you're done you've got a tidy accident sketch and report to submit to the interested parties. The service is free and requires no registration.

Have a handy tool and tidbit for dealing with insurance companies and life after a fender-bender? Let's hear about it in the comments.

AccidentSketch [via MakeUseOf]

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New York now offering Enhanced Driver's Licenses with RFID

New York now offering Enhanced Driver's Licenses with RFID: "

Filed under: Etc., Tech

New York has now become the second state in the country to offer RFID-embedded driver's licenses. Following Washington State's lead last year, the radio-frequency identification (aka RFID) licenses will be offered at a $30 premium over the standard driver's license. The benefits of the RFID license include their ability to do double-duty as a driver's license and a U.S. passport for those who frequently enter New York from Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean (of course, you will still need a 'real' passport to enter the state from other international destinations). Authorities say that only an ID number, no personal info, is stored on the chip. Regardless, as some embedded chips may be read from a distance -- and not necessarily a direct line of site -- authorities in New York will still offer standard licenses for those on the paranoid side... or they can run out and purchase an RFID-blocking wallet. Thanks for the tip, Yash!

[Source: Car Tech, Photo from New York DMV]

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