Mayor Bill de Blasio has made a big push for improved pedestrian safety on New York City streets. He introduced Vision Zero, a $100 million project to protect residents from auto accidents. Fifty major thoroughfares and intersection redesigns were completed in the first year of the initiative implemented in 2014 – creating protected bike lanes, improving major intersections, widening sidewalks and installing pedestrian “refuge medians”.
In addition, the Taxi and Limousine Commission initiated its Vehicle Safety Technology Program to implement state-of the art technology for TLC licensees with a goal to improve driver safety. De Blasio also reduced city speed limits to 25 mph,except where otherwise posted, a key change intended to slow drivers to prevent auto accidents and injuries.
But has De Blasio’s leadership in automobile and pedestrian safety actually impacted the number of auto related accidents and fatalities?
The Mayor and Department of Transportation (DOT) is claiming that 2013-2014 was the safest for New York City pedestrians with a reported 15 percent drop in overall traffic fatalities and a 27 percent reduction in pedestrian fatalities since recordkeeping began in 1910.
Perhaps the currently imposed initiatives are doing the trick.
The DOT is also tackling one of Manhattan’s most crash-prone intersections at East 57th Street and Third Avenue – adding improved pedestrian crossings and redesigning tangled bus routes.
And to protect cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians from getting caught under vehicles in City truck collisions (which account for 32 percent of bicyclist, motorcyclist and pedestrian fatalities, even though City trucks account for just 3.6 percent of vehicles on City roads), in February this year, 2015, the City also began installing side guards on more than 200 City trucks. These are safety rails between the front and rear wheels.
On the surface, the combination of projects is proving to have positive results. New York traffic fatalities do seem to be on the decline: from 701 in 1990 to 381 in 2000 and 249 in 2011 – an all-time low. And where the DOT has made changes at high fatality locations, they have decreased at twice the rate of other improved locations – by 34%.
But, as Jay Dankner, a partner in the top New York auto accident law firm of Dankner Milstein, P.C. points out, that despite these new initiatives and improvements to street design and traffic flow, more than 250 New Yorkers are killed annually in traffic accidents and 4,000 are seriously injured.
“They are the second leading cause of injury-related deaths for the elderly and the leading cause for children under 14,” Dankner said. “Every two hours in New York, vehicle accidents cause a death or serious injury.”
Dankner further stated, “We’d love nothing more than to have fewer victims of automobile accidents who need representation. But much more needs to be done to reach that goal. The number of cases we represent where people have been killed or injured in a car accident, bike accident or motorcycle accident is not tracking with the decreases in the statistics reported by Mayor De Blasio and the DOT”.
If you think you have been the victim of motor vehicle driver negligence, you should contact one of our lawyers at Dankner Milstein for a free consultation at 212-751-8000 or office@dmesq.com.
Our firm has recovered more than $500 million for clients we’ve represented and has obtained more than two hundred (200) verdicts and settlements of one million dollars or higher.
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- With the support of Councilmembers James Vacca and Ydanis Rodriguez, the Taxi and Limousine Commission unveiled the Vehicle Safety Technology Pilot Program on June 2nd. This program provides participating TLC licensees with state-of-the-art technology to improve driver safety.
In this story:
- On November 7th, the New York City speed limit changed to 25 MPH, unless otherwise posted. By getting drivers to slow down, we will prevent crashes, protect New Yorkers from injury and save lives.
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Learn about Vision Zero meetings in your borough The primary mission of government is to protect the public. New York’s families deserve and expect safe streets. In this story:
In this story:
- With the support of Councilmembers James Vacca and Ydanis Rodriguez, the Taxi and Limousine Commission unveiled the Vehicle Safety Technology Pilot Program on June 2nd. This program provides participating TLC licensees with state-of-the-art technology to improve driver safety.
In this story:
- On November 7th, the New York City speed limit changed to 25 MPH, unless otherwise posted. By getting drivers to slow down, we will prevent crashes, protect New Yorkers from injury and save lives.
In this story:
In this story: