The morning after a Borough Park architect was killed on Thursday evening, the roadway the place he was run over by a sanitation truck driver was nonetheless stuffed with illegally parked automobiles belonging to staff of an MTA practice facility — a harmful apply which will have led to the bicycle owner’s dying.
The NYPD stated it had issued “multiple summonses” to the nonetheless unidentified 62-year-old driver of the privately owned Volvo storage truck that struck architect Eric Salitsky, 35, at round 6:20 p.m. on Thursday evening on Ninth Avenue on the MTA’s thirty eighth Street Yard. The driver initially fled, however was “located a short time after the collision,” police stated. The NYPD additionally appeared to excuse the motive force’s unlawful flight from the scene, saying, “It is believed that the operator was not aware that he was involved in a collision.”
The NYPD declined to say what the summonses had been for, however the driver didn’t seem to have been arrested.
Meanwhile, on Friday, a reporter found six automobiles — 5 with MTA vests on the dashboard, and one with a NYPD Transit Police placard — parked illegally within the “No Parking” zone on the southbound facet of Ninth Avenue the place Salitsky was killed.
In addition to having a sharrow alerting drivers that they should respect and yield to cyclists, the slim two-way highway can also be a bus route. At one level, two buses couldn’t move one another due to the presence of that illegally parked police officer’s automobile — a automobile that has been slapped with 5 camera-issued rushing tickets in lower than two years:
Other automobiles on the block displayed MTA vests, like these:
At Salitsky’s residence on forty second Street close to the crash web site, the window shades had been pulled down and a taped word on the buzzer requested privateness.
The neighborhood of Borough Park is certainly one of least protected for cyclists, due to the absence of even a single protected bike lane and a political institution that works towards security enhancements, such as the DOT’s plan for bike lanes on Seventh and Eighth avenues on the western fringe of Borough Park. Lawmakers for the neighborhood embody State Sen. Simcha Felder and Assembly Member Peter Abbate, plus Council Member Kalman Yeger — all of whom have opposed avenue security measures.
“It’s a fucking joke,” stated one metropolis insider who requested anonymity as a result of they aren’t licensed to talk publicly. “The DOT brings plans to Community Board 12, like Seventh and Eighth avenues and they cut the bus lanes. And DOT goes along with it. This neighborhood doesn’t want anything done.”
Felder didn’t return a name on Friday. Yeger has by no means responded to a request for data from Streetsblog.
But Abbate, who has been within the Assembly for the reason that Reagan administration, known as again to say he does care about highway security within the neighborhood, citing his authorship of 4 payments … that would cut back biking.
“I have bills to regulate motorized bikes and scooters and all the things we see today,” he stated. “Bicyclists need to wear a helmet and be registered.”
He didn’t appear to know the distinction between pedal-assist electrical bikes (legalized by the state legislature in 2019) and unlawful mopeds.
“They’re all the same,” he stated. “It’s an outrage.”
When reminded that automobile and truck drivers trigger upwards of 98 p.c of the accidents, and just about all the deaths, on our streets —together with Thursday’s bicycle owner fatality — Abbate was undeterred from opposing biking.
“I understand [the numbers], but I’m getting a lot more [complaints] about bikes,” he stated.
Abbate opposed a metropolis plan to revamp Seventh and Eighth avenues in close by Sunset Park due to its bike lane and since he felt it might trigger congestion as a result of drivers would nonetheless double park on the industrial strip. But the double-parking is just not what bothered him, per se, as a result of double-parking drivers should not those who kill pedestrians and cyclists.
“DOT doesn’t have a clue,” he stated. “I don’t think they’ve ever been in a car! They come to the community board with statistics, like, ‘There have been 22 accidents’ — but 20 of them were a tiny scrape of one car against another. We gotta get the drivers who kill people at high speed! More ticketing. More enforcement. Stiffer punishment for speeding. And take their license away. And that’s why bicyclists have to be registered, too.”
He additionally stated he was centered on “fixing traffic.”
“Give me two trucks for three months and we will solve the problem of double-parked cars,” stated Abbate, who was as soon as a taxi driver. “DOT can put in all the loading zones and bike lanes it wants, but if there’s no enforcement, people are going to park there! So the one lane becomes no lanes. But DOT says, ‘It’s not our job.’ Go to 250 Broadway [the State office building]! There are always people parked in the Assembly member spaces.” [DOT did not respond to a request for comment on the Salisky case, citing the ongoing investigation.]
Abbate is nothing if not assured in his opinion. “If I sat on my stoop for five minutes, I could tell you which people should have their licenses revoked and which shouldn’t,” he stated. “I’m not against safety. But I want smart safety.”
For its half, MTA spokesperson Eugene Resnick issued a assertion: “New York City Transit’s consistent message to employees is clear that if they do drive, they shouldn’t park on a sidewalk, in a bus lane, in an illegal spot, or at a metered spot without paying. Placing an MTA vest on the dashboard does not exempt an employee from parking regulations or convey any special privilege.”