Photos by David Torres.
A motorcyclist hit a 73-year-old man who was crossing 96th street at Amsterdam Avenue on Thursday night, sending the pedestrian to St. Luke’s hospital in critical condition.
Update: the 73-year-old man was pronounced dead on Saturday.
The pedestrian was walking in the crosswalk from the South side of 96th to the North side around 5 p.m. when the motorcyclist driving a Ducati bike traveling East on 96th hit him, an NYPD spokesperson said. The spokesperson did not know whether the pedestrian had the light. The motorcyclist remained on the scene after the crash, and was also taken to the hospital. The incident remains under investigation and there have been no arrests.
Update: Detective John McDonnell of the 24th precinct told us on Friday that the motorcyclist was traveling with the green light. The motoryclist was treated at the hospital and released early Friday. The pedestrian was in “serious condition.”
Tragic update: Pedestrian in critical condition at St. Luke's hospital, not expected to survive. https://t.co/bq8XdI28LI
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) January 15, 2016
The street was closed off for more than three hours while police investigated.
@westsiderag this is 96th and Columbus pic.twitter.com/qDo4lMc27Y
— Yeggo (@Yeggo) January 15, 2016
A neighbor of the victim said he is a local and well-known in the community. She did not wish to give his name.
I am FURIOUS at CB7.
They’ve been delaying (and continue to delay!) making Amsterdam Avenue safer for YEARS — and they’ve been treating *thousands* of concerned constituents who are trying to advocate for safety with contempt.
THIS is the result. Is this what they want?
When will the madness end?
While there is no excuse for reckless driving.
This was NOT the motorcyclists fault.
I was the ped that stepped out in front of the motorcyclists.
Typo Adjustment:
The last sentence should read:
It was the ped that stepped out in front of the motorcyclists
Not to disagree with what you’ve said (or to agree with it either), but this event involved a motorcycle “traveling west on 96th [Street]” hitting a pedestrian who “was walking in the crosswalk from the South side of 96th to the North side”.
While the event happened at or near Amsterdam Avenue, it doesn’t sound like there’s a way that Amsterdam Avenue traffic patterns were involved in any way.
Are we prioritizing street safety or parking & traffic? It sure seems like the community board values drivers’ priorities over the safety of the neighborhood residents.
Would the specific things in the Amsterdam Ave redesign have stopped this particular injury? Maybe, maybe not.
I do know that if safety was the CB’s priority, then Amsterdam Ave would be done and people would be looking at the major cross streets – 79, 96, etc. Instead we’re still debating the same thing we have been talking about for years.
FYI – That’s a DUCATI motorcycle (not a Takati)
Thanks, fixed. WSR
NBC news this morning said that the pedestrian was both (i) outside of the crosswalk and (ii) crossing against the light. Seems there was/is a question of where the pedestrian was hit… and NBC defaulted to blaming the pedestrian in a 10 second news clip. Either way, tragic – traffic calming street developments are needed.
How would traffic calming streets help in this case? Pedestrians crossing against the light in the dark have to take some responsibility.
Traffic calming reduces the likelihood of crashes happening in the first place. Slower vehicle operators see/react to the road more reliably.
It’s very basic.
Actually, it doesn’t.
Any of the plans put forward would not have stopped this accident. The ped was “J” walking across the street out of the crosswalk, and against the light as well.
The “safety enhancements” put in on west end have actually decreased safety. People daily risk getting injured and/or killed by crossing against the light and out of the crosswalk. Having the traffic island in the middle of the avenue has encouraged people to blot into traffic figuring that they only have half the distance to cross.
I have to disagree about the value of the changes made on West End. My own observation is that, at least at the north end of the avenue, vehicles are moving more slowly, which increases my safety as a pedestrian. I’ve noticed that traffic moves a bit more slowly when I’ve driven on West End as well. I wish there were more enforcement of vehicles going through red lights, speeding and crossing in front of pedestrians, but the changes made so far definitely have made me feel safer.
As for this tragic crash, it sounds like the Amsterdam Ave. proposals might not have made a difference. But they are still crucial for our safety.
There is no indication that the motorcycle was travelling at an unsafe speed. The police say the motorcycle had the light. It’s hard to see people at night. They shouldn’t be in the road when traffic is moving towards them. That’s very basic.
Even if it’s broad daylight (which is was not) pedestrians take their lives in their hands if they cross against the light. We all know that, sometimes we do it anyway. Sometimes there are disastrous consequences.
Sorry for my angry words there, by the way. I was tremendously disappointed with the impasse at the community board on Tuesday, and I believe the complete-street Amsterdam Ave redesign is a vital improvement for the neighborhood. But I appreciate how much time the board puts in, and how focused they are on getting things right for the Upper West Side.
Now, how dark is it at 5:06 pm? Not very. Was it stormy on Thursday? Check how light it is around 7 am (15 minutes before the sun comes up) or 5:06 pm. There’s a lot of light in the sky then. Unless the pedestrian stepped out just in front of traffic, he should be visible to an alert driver.
We don’t know the motorcycle’s speed. We know he had a green light. The pics included in this article show the police rather far from the crosswalk but I don’t know anything about accident investigation to know if that’s meaningful.
…and that this is a notoriously dangerous intersection, on a crash-prone road that just this week the transportation committee chairs voted not to fix. While babbling about parking. Like Steve, I’m fed up and disgusted with the endless obstruction by the committee chairs. These guys will twiddle their thumbs forever. Someone will die on a street where they delayed or blocked a bike lane and pedestrian refuges, and they’ll still think that it wasn’t worth giving up parking spaces for.
We don’t know his speed, unless you do. Just that the speed limit is 25 mph.
I’m a frequent pedestrian and infrequent driver on that block, and had a close call with a northbound driver turning east on 96th. But this sad situation doesn’t sound like anything any committee or board could have prevented?
Andrew Albert and Dan Zweig, CB7 Transportation Committee co-chairs, are a disgrace. They ought to be ousted from the committee seats they occupy.
Yes, once again PED was the at fault for causing their own accident. Last year we had a terrible number of traffic fatalities, 5 if memory serves, but 4 out of the 5 time the PED was at fault. J walking diagonally arcos 96 & B’way on a rainy/foggy night is just not a good idea. Nor is trying to run across the highway on ramp west of B’way when you have been drinking.
None of this excuses those the drivers that do not obey the laws, but come on folks, PED’s also have to take much more responsibility for there actions. Bike riders also need to subject to much more enforcement
In some parts of the US, the moment a pedestrian steps off the curb, all vehicles HAVE to stop. The pedestrian has the right of way at all times. Maybe not practical for NYC, but wouldn’t it be grand??
In some parts of the US pedestrians are ticketed if they step off the curb against the (pedestrian) light or cross mid-block.
no, I actually need trucks to be able to drive into the city and deliver food to Fairway and TJ so that I can shop and eat and continue to survive. Everyone can take their turn.
No it wouldn’t.
Seiously awful idea no matter the location.
It would be grand if everyone waited their turn.
It wouldn’t be grand. It would mean no cars, cabs, or trucks would ever move. This man wasn’t because the motorcycle saw him and decided not to stop. Nobody wants to hit a pedestrian. It was dark, the motorcycle had a green light, he wasn’t expecting anyone to be in the road. I doubt he saw him more than a second before he hit him. Even if the law required the motorcycle to stop he wouldn’t have because he didn’t have time.
There is blood on community board 7’s hands.
Uh, maybe dial back the rhetoric a bit? Yeesh.
Community Boards are now responsible for irresponsible drivers and pedestrians?
Do explain….?
People who have never been on a motorcycle always fail to understand the physics. They cannot stop on a dime simply because someone thoughtlessly steps in front of one or if a car makes a left turn in its path without looking. The rider could have been proceeding in a perfectly safe and lawful manner yet completely at the mercy of others who create unsafe circumstances.
That’s true, a motorcycle at 25 mph has a stopping distance of 41 feet, and over the speed limit at 35 mph the stopping distance increases to 71 feet.
We don’t know the motorcyclist’s speed, just that he hit a senior while traveling west on 96th street, so lets see what the cops say.
We all know that speeding is a widespread problem across the Upper West Side and the cops didn’t prioritize it in December. The 24th precinct issued only 24 speeding tickets in the month of December, and the 20 wrote only 3 speeding tickets.
We also know that the senior citizen pedestrian was crossing the street when he didn’t have the light after 5pm when it’s pretty dark in January.
Last year we had a terrible number of traffic fatalities, 5 if memory serves, but 4 out of the 5 time the PED was at fault. J walking diagonally arcos 96 & B’way on a rainy/foggy night is just not a good idea. Nor is trying to run across the highway on ramp west of B’way when you have been drinking.
None of this excuses those drivers that do not obey the laws, but come on folks, PED’s also have to take much more responsibility for there actions. Bike riders also need to subject to much more enforcement.
By the way, in reference to the speeding comments here and elsewhere about speeding on the UWS, they are GREATLY overstated. When we had a series of deaths last year DOT/NYPD set up a series of cameras in the area that checked speed by radar. The camera recorded your speed and then flashed it on a screen further down the block. You could not see the camera and/or the sign before it caught you on purpose, so drivers could not slow down if the saw it.
Neighborhood self appointed community leaders, the anti car pressure groups and the media clustered around these signs. The found that while their untrained eye kept having them say oh look another speeder, they were way off. The numbers came in massively showing that people were not speed at high rates. WSR actually ran a story with pictures on this but not surprisingly the issue was not talked much elsewhere. When the local precinct does its job going after all types of traffic infractions, by PED’s, bikers as well as cars they get crucified by bike pressure groups and self appointed community activists.
Also in ref to the drop in tickets, call the mayors office. There was a surge in tickets when de Balz’s vision zero plan was rolled out. The local precincts were given more overtime allowances to allow our understaffed precincts keep officers out there on overtime to do this. After a very short time, and the media attention died down, the mayor and the city council would not increase the overtime budget for the NYPD to continue these actions as well as others.
As a personal note before the bitching at me stars, as it always does when I make these comments. I do NOT own a car, I walk miles each day doing things around the city and use mass transit daily.
Help me understand the overtime point. It looks like in both the 20 and 24, total traffic ticketing was up for December. Just the number of speeding tickets was way down. Maybe I misinterpreted that as the precincts were less focused on speeding enforcement in December. Does speeding enforcement require overtime? What’s the best way for the neighborhood to request speeding enforcement? Should it come as a request from the mayor?
Also, is the high rate of speed at 10 mph over the limit? We got the speed limit dropped to 25 mph in order to save lives, since at that speed collisions happen less often and are more survivable. Where does the high rate of speed kick in?
Then, the city’s vision zero map shows 3 UWS fatalities in 2015. Luisa Rosario where she was in the crosswalk, Moshe Grun at 62nd and Broadway who was in the crosswalk (it sounded like he crossed the Broadway median after the flashing hand, so a driver who turned into him wasn’t charged), and the senior who was crossing at 64th and West End. Maybe she needed extra time or was disoriented, we don’t know. That’s 2 of 3 pedestrian fatalities where the person was in the crosswalk with the light. Is it possible you could take a look at the source for saying there were 4/5 fatalities where ped was at fault?
Speeding enforcement does not in of its self per say require overtime. But when you have two officers and an RMP detailed to an intersection for their tour it takes away from other tasks. While the officers can and do still respond to “jobs” that come over the radio, while on a traffic enforcement detail, without the extra man hours it’s hard to dedicate someone to that all day.
The vision zero map is inaccurate, where they get their numbers and how they chose which to post and which not makes no sense.
For example the 24 have 4 out of its 5 fatalities in January alone. (The total may have been 7 for the year) The map you refer to shows only 3 for the several precincts on the UWS. It’s not NYPD’s fault as to the inaccurate numbers being posted. The NYPD numbers are public and are submitted weekly along with the compsat numbers.
As for who is a fault in the 4 out of 5 here goes. The woman that ran across 96 midblock at approx. 4am between WEA & B’way and got hit by any FDNY ambulance. The older man killed J walking dianglely across the 96 & B’way late on a very foggy/rain night. (Sadly, the driver that hit Copper Stock on 97 & WEA was diverted to WEA because of this incident) The Italian singer at 106 & B’way, late at night walking against traffic on B’way, tried to beat out a car coming northbound, which had the light.
Since the 7th redesign, of the redesign, of the redesign in 2010 of the B’way & 96 intersection, people still get hit. They step off the island with the subway entrance all day and night without looking. Every day someone nearly gets hit and often does. The worst corner for this, is the one with Time Warner office on it. People just step off with their ear phones in and/or on their phones. Don’t get me started on the bikes that blow thru the intersections lights all day.
Also 96 and WEA is also a problem each morning I see parents step off the curb with strollers and small children AGAINST the light heading across 96 to PS 75. Many of them are on the phone, have their ear phones on and are generally not paying attn.
People that drive need to pay attention as well but so far the “fix’s” have just moved the problem from x to y. Ex. the narrowing of B’way between 94 & 100th and no longer allowing must turns at Bway & 96. This has led to a huge increase of traffic on WEA and Col. WEA for example is now backed up each morning from 96 past 107th, the intersections are usually blocked by this traffic as well. Commercial trucks are also being forced to dog leg over to WEA to turn at 96. For example they come south on B’way then down 97 to WEA, then one block and then left on 96 to go east. The is happening on other nearby blocks as well along with trucks traveling other directions.
By the way before someone’s says ticket them for being on WEA, you can’t. They can legally travel on WEA 2 to 4 blocks if they have a delivery and/or if they are “required to do so by other state city regulation”.
Oh, got it. The vision zero map is up to date, but it’s the 2015 results instead of 2014.
Don’t want to quibble back and forth, but in at least two of the pedestrian deaths in 2014, the driver was found at fault. In one case that was after we heard a serious amount of misinformation (we heard pedestrian was looking at her phone, which she wasn’t, but not driver had hit hit three other pedestrians in recent months. That’s pretty bad). In several others, the fatalities were on streets that we’ve fixed since then, and we never heard relevant info like how fast the drivers were going when these deaths happened. The pedestrian and the motorcyclist both have to exercise due care. It’s not clear if either one did, so let’s take care not to absolve the motorcyclist before getting more of the relevant facts out.
Rest in peace to this longtime UWSer. So sad.
The pedestrians in this area are most often the cause of accidents of this nature. It is terrible that the ped was injured and I pray for a full recovery but it is mainly the recklessness of the pedestrians on 96 th street that make driving in this area hazardous!!!!! When will the police begin to give tickets to pedestrians not obeying the traffic lights?
What about speed? Did the investigators assess if the motocyclist was speeding