Bicyclist deaths & police response
In April 2016, Lauren Davis, 34, was killed by a driver on Classon Ave. in Brooklyn. Initial NYPD statements said she was biking in the wrong direction when the crash occurred.
Yet less than two weeks later, a witness came forward to say that Davis was riding legally in the direction of traffic when the driver turned into her, an account that directly contradicted the police.
That same month, James Gregg, 33, was killed while riding his bike on Brooklyn’s Sixth Ave. when he was run over by a semitruck driver. Officers at the scene said that Gregg was intentionally holding the truck’s side as if to hitch a ride when he fell under the rear wheel of the trailer. Police later changed the story to say that “wind force” had sucked Gregg under the truck.
This April, a turning truck driver killed Kelly Hurley, 31, at First Ave. and Ninth St. on the Lower East Side. An NYPD detective told The Village Voice that Hurley, a SoulCycle instructor, “slipped off her bike” and “slid under the truck as he (the driver) made the turn.” Yet in the same story, the detective said that the truck driver turned left from the right-most lane before striking Hurley. That would be a moving violation.
One factually inaccurate report can be chalked up to the chaotic nature of crash scenes and conflicting eyewitness reports. Multiple inaccurate reports form a disturbing pattern, one that suggests that the NYPD sees New Yorkers who bike as somehow inviting injury or even death for daring to share the roads with drivers.
That pattern may have played out again.
On Monday, Dan Hanegby, 36, was riding a Citi Bike on W. 26th St. when he was run over by a charter bus driver. Police told the press that Hanegby, an accomplished tennis player and former staff sergeant with the Israeli Defense Forces, swerved to go around a parked van, struck the bus, and then fell under its rear tires.
It’s a thin account that leaves open the possibility that the bus driver — who may not have been legally permitted to operate an oversize vehicle on W. 26th St. — passed Hanegby too closely and caused him to fall. Only a thorough investigation will tell.
Another way to judge the seriousness with which the NYPD values the lives of New just Yorkers who bike is by looking at the department’s enforcement priorities in the wake of such tragedies. On Tuesday morning, 24 hours after Hanegby was killed, officers with the 10th Precinct were on 26th St. issuing citations to bicycle riders. In response to Kelly Hurley’s death, officers of the 9th Precinct ticketed cyclists on First Ave. And after two cyclists were killed at the same Sunnyside, Queens, intersection in two days — one by a drunken, unlicensed driver who fled the scene — the 108th Precinct was out ticketing people on bikes. So what can be done? The first step would be to erect what some have called a “blue wall of silence” until an investigation is complete. While the press and the public have a right to know what’s happening, misinformation can actively harm investigations and prevent grieving families from achieving justice. Police should refrain from divulging all but the most basic details until the circumstances of a crash are known.
The second step would be for the police to target behavior that is known to lead to crashes. Spot checks of permits could prevent oversize vehicles from heading down streets where they don’t belong. Failure-to-yield stings — in which cops ticket drivers who do not slow down and stop for pedestrians and bicyclists with the right of way — could be effective if they were conducted in known problem areas.
The third step involves trust and cooperation. If we are to take NYPD reports at their word and believe that some crashes are simply unavoidable accidents, then design solutions from the Department of Transportation are required. W. 26th St., where Hanegby was killed, is wide enough for a protected bicycle lane. There had been a plan to put bike lanes on Classon Ave. before Lauren Davis was killed, but community board obstruction caused DOT to shelve it.
Our city has come a long way when it comes to saving lives, yet there’s work to be done. It will involve an understanding from our police department that the truth matters and that no New Yorker who chooses to get around by bike deserves to die because of another person’s mistake.