Welcome to BRBRbrooklyn! Whether you are pedaling to the shore, the store, your neighbor’s stoop, or back to your own coop, this blog is for you. Bay Ridge Bicycle Routes is an effort raise to awareness within our neighborhood and among civic groups about the activities of bicyclists in Bay Ridge and other nearby communities in southern Brooklyn.

Our neighborhood’s immediate access to the harbor, less congested street traffic, friendly atmosphere, expansive parks and flat terrain (except, of course, for the steep ridge in Bay Ridge!) makes our corner of New York City one of the most fantastic places to ride a bicycle. Whether for transportation, recreation, fun or fitness, cycling is great in Bay Ridge.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Fatalities: Car, Pedestrian, Bicycle



The weather has warmed up just above freezing but winter's continual gloom and cold must have us thinking about things not so great. Through all the backlash in recent weeks directed towards bicycling in NYC with bike licenses, bicycle ticketing, extensive review for new bicycle lanes (ie built-in bureaucratic red tape), we found a post on the CRCA Message Board that showed the differences between the life-and-death rights of drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists:

DRIVER FATALITY
February 4, 2011
An officer pulled a vehicle over near exit 39 in Old Westbury and was sitting in his car with his lights blinking when the patrol car was struck from behind by a flatbed truck. The officer died. Police charged the flatbed truck driver with criminally negligent homicide.
Story here.

PEDESTRIAN FATALITY
January 24, 2011
Laurence Renard, 35, was crushed to death by a garbage truck as she was crossing an Upper East Side street. The truck driver was charged for driving with a suspended license.

CYCLIST FATALITY
November 2008
Camille Savoy, a 54-year-old man from New York City was struck from behind while riding on Route 9W near Alpine, NJ. The driver was issued a summons for careless driving by Alpine police, but the investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office did not yield criminal complaints, and the accident cause was determined to be due to driver inattention.
Story here.

Though the tragedy for the driver fatality was the death of an on-duty police officer and the pedestrian and bicyclists were civilians, the comparison between the three incidents illustrates a clear discrepancy in the legal treatment of fatalities involving a driver, pedestrian or cyclist.

BRBR sends our condolences to the family and friends of the persons listed in this posting.
Posted by BRBR at 8:51 PM

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