Community Board 3 joins call for urgent safety measures at Manhattan Bridge-Canal Street intersection

Photo via @andrea_gordillo

Community leaders, local elected officials, and safe-street advocates are renewing calls for urgent changes to the dangerous Manhattan Bridge exit at Canal Street and the Bowery after two people were killed by a speeding driver early on July 19. 

At a vigil held July 23 at the foot of the bridge, Community Board 3 Chair Andrea Gordillo said the deaths of May Kwok, 63, and Kevin Cruikshank, 55, were "preventable" and demanded immediate safety upgrades.

 

Here's part of a statement that Gordillo shared on Instagram on July 24:

We gathered last night in heartbreak and fury for May Kwok and Kevin Cruikshank, two lives stolen in crashes this weekend that we've long warned were preventable. As Chair of Community Board 3, I've joined community leaders in calling on @nyc_dot to fix Canal Street and make room for the people and small businesses who give this corridor life for years now. 

We're past the deadline. DOT promised a redesign plan by Fall 2024. Two more lives are now gone, and we've seen no action. 

We need immediate safety changes — and we must rethink the Manhattan Bridge Plaza as a true public space: for walking, biking, gathering, and grieving. 

Despite years of community pressure and city studies, the Department of Transportation has yet to unveil a redesign. The agency says it plans to update the public on proposed safety improvements this fall. Advocates are pushing for measures like bollards or concrete barriers, as well as a broader reimagining of the Manhattan Bridge plaza.

"DOT has plans and they sit on shelves, people die, people are seriously injured in the meantime," Kate Brockwehl, an advocate with the organization Families for Safe Streets, said during the rally, as reported by Streetsblog. "Why play politics and delay, and delay, and delay, when you know that Canal Street in its current design is a public health emergency?" 

A DOT spokesperson told ABC 7, "This driver should not have been on our streets and, as we work to develop safety improvements along Canal, we will continue our advocacy at the state level for legislation to address the most dangerous recidivist drivers who pose an outsized risk to all New Yorkers."

There are currently five inbound lanes of traffic entering the Bowery and Canal from the bridge, which may be an unnecessary number, given that traffic across the bridge has dropped 19% since congestion pricing took effect, as Streetsblog reported. 

The driver of the stolen car (a rental that had not been returned), Autumn Donna Ascencio Romero, 23, was charged on July 21 with murder, manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, aggravated vehicular homicide, criminal possession of a weapon, leaving the scene of an accident and criminal possession of stolen property. 

Her passenger, Kennedy Lecraft, 22, was reportedly charged with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of stolen property and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

After the deadly collision in which the speeding car jumped the curb, striking the victims on the sidewalk before destroying an unoccupied police van, the two tried to flee the scene. NYPD investigators said they found an open bottle of tequila in the front of the car and two semi-automatic weapons in the trunk.

Romero was out on bail for a Brooklyn collision that seriously injured a 22-year-old woman in April.

Twenty-four hours after the deadly crash, a driver lost control of his car on Sunday morning and drove into a food truck and TD Bank at the same intersection. There were no reported injuries.

At this link, Streetsblog has a history of this dangerous intersection and the potential fixes required to improve the safety for pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists.

Below is a copy of the letter that local elected officials and Community Boards sent to DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez last week.