New York Shitty Day Ender: Holy Shit

Anonymous writes:

Miss Heather,

Well, Greenpoint drivers continue their reign of terror.

I’m writing to report a traffic crash at McGuinness Blvd and Huron Street at around 6:15PM. A driver, evidently speeding at what must have been way over the speed limit (50 mph?), hit a lightpole (knocking it clean off the sidewalk) and a parked car on the southwest corner. The driver appeared unharmed but shaken.  Of course he was not ticketed or arrested. Witnesses report that the driver almost hit several people on the sidewalk and in the crosswalk. One witness said that the driver was swerving to avoid another car, which fled the scene.

FDNY blocked off the intersection, but NYPD did not direct traffic. This encouraged stupid drivers to drive over the sidewalk to get down Huron. One driver got confrontational and threatened to assault pedestrians when they were “in their way” on the sidewalk.

Photos attached.

another view of the sceneNYS

Looks like Lofts 305 got an unexpected visitor.

FDNY clearing the debrisNYS

motorhead threatening pedestriansNYS

Apparently this is the motorist that was threatening pedestrians.

NYPD going to interview the driverNYS

An officer heads over to talk to the driver.

the driver being treated by FDNYnys

the sceneNYSjpg

Welcome to Huron Street!nys

Damn.

Miss Heather

Comments

9 Comments on New York Shitty Day Ender: Holy Shit

  1. AMOJA on Mon, 24th Aug 2009 6:13 am
  2. You know what would be nice? If they enforced speed limits on McGuinness. Almost every time I drive down the Blvd, I’m passed by at least one vehicle traveling around 50mph. And don’t get me started on the Pulaski. That thing’s a regular raceway, for both cars and bicycles. And get off my lawn while you’re at it!

  3. dc108 on Mon, 24th Aug 2009 9:58 am
  4. God forbid the 94 officers do their job. Oh wait, they don’t help the local citizenry, they harass them. In this case, it was a passive harassment. Goddamn, they are inventive.

  5. lylet on Mon, 24th Aug 2009 1:34 pm
  6. There are actually cops at the foot of the Pulaski in Greenpoint fairly often. But I think you have to be going pretty fast to get pulled over (as someone who hasn’t gotten a ticket going 40ish on the way down the bridge…). They’ve gotten trickier lately too – backing down Freeman St so that they can just barely see out with their radar gun. That being said, people still go waaaaay to fast along McGuinness.

    Furthermore – the guys at the tire shop near the corner of Norman (or is it Meserole?) who change tires for customers who pull in along McGuinnes continue to amaze me. Quite the risk for a $7 tire patch…

  7. dc108 on Mon, 24th Aug 2009 3:16 pm
  8. I’d also like to add, for AMOJA’s sake, that once upon a time, I was in a car that got a speeding ticket on McGuinness while coming off the bridge. Back in 1998. I haven’t seen a cop set up there in years.

  9. smeyer on Mon, 24th Aug 2009 5:55 pm
  10. to get the local pd to enforce speeding rules you will need to go to the precinct council meetings of the local precinct and complain. for some foolish reason the PD doesn’t allow local cops to enforce speeding and requires either the highway cops or people trained by them to do it. The CPT has to request this and sometimes unfortunately it takes a pedestrian death to have this done. Call the local community affairs officer at the precinct and find out when the next meeting is and show up. You can also raise the issue with the CA officer but generally you will get better results at the meeting. You should also talk with your Community Board manager and the local city councilperson(or his office staff attached to your community)

  11. theblackdane on Mon, 24th Aug 2009 7:25 pm
  12. I don’t know if it’s been reported anywhere else but evidently a pedestrian was hit on McGuiness near the corner of Green this past Saturday night by an Ice Cream Truck coming off the bridge – presumably headed back to the garage on Green between Provost and McGuiness. A person I talked to at the scene did not know if the pedestrian had survived. . .

  13. missheather on Mon, 24th Aug 2009 11:18 pm
  14. I haven’t heard anything but I’d be hardly surprised. One of those ice cream trucks jumped the curb on Huron Street at McGuinness (where a gas station is located) and damned near hit me in the process. The audacity— of me thinking I could walk on the sidewalk.

  15. neighborhood threat on Tue, 25th Aug 2009 9:09 am
  16. I come home over the Pulaski frequently at night and often see a police car sitting there waiting with its radar gun. That said, speed traps do NOT equal good policing. Good policing is being out there, patrolling, setting the pace, looking for erratic drivers.

    There are enough hazards on McGuinness as it is. Given that there is already a bike lane on Eckford and another on Manhattan and another on Franklin I am not sure that a bike lane is the right thing to add here in order to mitigate the traffic issues. (I am insanely in favor of the bike lane on the Pulaski, however, before I get attacked for being anti-bike. I live with a city cyclist and would be one myself if I wasn’t such a scaredy cat.)

    […] said Freedman-Schnapp, noting that, in addition to the bridge approaches, corridors like McGuinness Boulevard have particular safety deficiencies that need to be addressed. The fact that all three bridges […]

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