Sunday, September 19, 2010

Pedestrian struck by Cadillac on Third Avenue

Vautrin, a photographer whose work we have published here before, sent along these photos. As Vautrin notes, last night at 9:09, a Cadillac sedan turning from 8th Street/Astor Place onto Third Avenue struck a pedestrian in the crosswalk. Police arrived in due course. Ambulance from Beth Israel arrived very promptly. From the photo, the pedestrian appears to have suffered a lower right leg/ankle/foot injury. And the smile on the face of the ambulance attendant in the last photo may be taken as a relatively favorable sign.





12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a really dangerous intersection for pedestrians. Isn't there some way they can time the lights differently, slow down the traffic or whatever, to account for the fact there are always people crossing there when they're not supposed to? I know it's on the pedestrians for the most part, trying to jaywalk, but it's still ugly.

Anonymous said...

The streets were wild last night at 4am on Avenue A, I've never seen anything like it except New Years, etc. The cab drivers have decided that THEY will decide who and when tbey pick up so they put on their off duties and ask we're you're going. If they have their regular light on they lock their door and ask where you're going before you get in. They are getting away with this and nobody is stopping them. I punched a cab real hard last night after he drove off as I tried to get in without answering where I was going first (and yes his regular, non-off duty light was on). Please, this needs to end.

Anonymous said...

ALSO, there was a car that randomly drove off the road and smashed into a parked car. After waiting a few seconds, they drove off through the bike lane and away as we yelled at them for leaving! I wrote down their license plate number with a note and left it in the smashed cars windshield, because that's just fucked up!

Last but not least, the cab situation was out of control, I saw someone throw a piece of glass at one cab, and other guys started yelling FUCK NY, FUCK NY CABS!
It really was disgusting that these drivers are getting away with not doing their jobs, the "No Brooklyn" thing taken to another level. Please draw attention to this, we need the TLC to listen!

EV Grieve said...

Where was the car smashed into, anon?

blue glass said...

be careful if you file a complaint with the tlc. you are required to go to a hearing to address the complaint or they dismiss it. they have a "process" for you to voice" a complaint over the phone if it is hard for you to go to a hearing, however, they do not seem to follow-up on this process even when you remind them you are waiting for them to set-up the phone hearing.
i tried this and do not plan to go to a hearing because my complaint was not about a particular driver, but the advertising that obstructed his license and picture. any driver in THAT cab's information would have been obliterated. and i thought this could be taken care of over the phone, with the company.
bureaucracy has gotten so bad that every important enforcement (read quality of life) is gone.
traffic is at a standstill and government has stopped.

Anonymous said...

The intersection at 14th and 1st is another dangerous one. Several pedestrians have lost their lives there.

LiberationNYC said...

How many graphic accidents does poor this photographer have to witness?

Anonymous said...

"The intersection at 14th and 1st is another dangerous one. Several pedestrians have lost their lives there."

Do you mean like last year when the 2 drunk girls who were jaywalking across 14th street at 2:30 in the morning ?.

Yeah, I'd say doing that would be dangerous.

Vautrin said...

Many thanks for the thought, LiberationNYC, but I sincerely hope it may possibly help, may make at least a tiny difference when someone bears witness in a permanent way--so when it's crunch time in the hot zone, Vautrin will always aim to deliver the goods. After all, it's not like the mid-1970's; no one is shooting at me as I shoot.

Anonymous said...

The goods?!

Shawn said...

The blank look on the victim is curious. Shock?

After this study came out, I only jaywalk now on major streets now. They warn against watching for cars turning left.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/nyregion/17walk.html

Look at the photograph in the blog post. Left turn!

On one-way streets, it's pathetically easy to avoid traffic. It's coming from only ONE direction. At intersections its coming from up to FOUR different directions.

When you're in an intersection you are a sitting duck.

Anonymous said...

@Shawn

Always a better idea to cross away from that left turn traffic. That particular intersection seems to be safer when crossing from the SE to SW corner or vice versa. That way you only have traffic turning right from Astor onto 3rd ave. I almost got run over trying to cross 8th street on the east side by a taxi trying to turn left from 3rd ave.

Same goes for 14th and 1st. 14th and 3rd is really bad because you have both streets with 2 way traffic, so all corners have left turning vehicles.

It would be a nice idea to put in more turning lanes like they have on Houston St. Those seem to work pretty nicely.

BTW, has anyone noticed that because of the new traffic pattern on 1st avenue, you can no longer turn North on 1st Ave when going East on 23rd St. or 34th St. ? How much more difficult are they going to make it ?