After two pedestrian fatalities Cops target Broadway drivers

By Tommy Hallissey

Pillars supporting the elevated subway tracks create an obstacle course for elderly pedestrians and obscure drivers' vision. 'There's no room for error,' says 50th precinct Capt. John D'Adamo.

Fiftieth Precinct police are stepping up patrols on a dangerous stretch of Broadway, where two women were run over in separate incidents in the last month.

Capt. John D'Adamo, the new commanding officer of the Five-0, said he ordered his highway safety teams to target the Broadway corridor. "We're going to put an end to [accidents] by education and enforcement - writing summonses," he said at the March 13 50th Precinct Community Council meeting.

Capt. D'Adamo said local police would ramp up enforcement of speeding, cell phone and seat belt tickets under the el. "Anything that contributes to accidents we're going to be targeting," Capt. D'Adamo said.

The two freak pedestrian fatalities in the last month occurred in similar fashion. Elderly women stepping out from behind pillars on Broadway were run over by cars which weren't excessively speeding. On March 9, a 75-year-old Yonkers woman was struck and killed by a 2005 Dodge Matrix on Broadway between West 238th and 239th streets. On Feb. 28, an 80-year-old woman died on Broadway after she was struck at the corner of Broadway and West 234th Street. Both drivers remained at the scene of the accident. No criminality was suspected in either instance.

The pattern, though, has police and advocacy groups taking a much-needed look at the street, which has always been problematic.

"It's a logistical nightmare," said Capt. D'Adamo. "There is no room for error."

Along the length of Broadway from the Harlem River to West 242nd Street, steel pillars supporting the elevated subway march down the middle of the road. Police say they contributed to the fatalities because both women stepped into the street from behind them.

The two recent deaths, transit advocates noted, are only a small piece of a broader pedestrian problem they've noted for more than a decade. From 1995 to 2005, police reported four fatalities on the Bronx Broadway corridor from West 225th to 242nd streets, according to a database by the New York state Department of Motor Vehicles.

"We do see a string of fatalities and not surprisingly because there is a subway line with high foot traffic and heavy car traffic," said Wiley Norvell, communications director for Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group. "You have a recipe for disaster."

The very same intersection, where Nora O'Sullivan, 80, of Kingsbridge, was killed a few weeks ago, was the site of a traffic fatality in 1996, according to the state DMV. The intersection at Broadway and Exterior Street was the scene of traffic fatalities in 1999 and 2005. Just a few blocks north, a pedestrian was struck at Broadway between West 236th and 237th streets in 1995.

"That definitely should set off alarm bells," said Mr. Norvell. "That is an indication that a street is failing."

Mr. Novell said the community has a number of options for increasing pedestrian safety by taking measures like narrowing the crossing distance or allowing pedestrians to walk first before the changing of the light.

Councilman Oliver Koppell also suggested the community post signs to alert pedestrians of the dangers of Broadway. He said it is difficult to fault drivers, if pedestrians step out from behind a pole with little warning. "I think what is important is that motorists slow down," Mr. Koppell added.

The local elected official is also co-sponsoring a new bill in the City Council, which would require the city Department of Transportation to administer three different types of safety analysis to ameliorate pedestrian and bicycle safety.

It calls for safety audits of crash locations involving pedestrians, safety inspections at locations exhibiting a pattern of crashes of pedestrians or bicyclists and a comprehensive study of pedestrian and serious injuries.

"Currently, there is no formal process where the NYPD, the agency that prepares accident reports, shares information with DOT, the agency that conducts engineering studies of streets," the City Council Committee on Transportation wrote last November.

The bill aims to formally charge the DOT with investigating problematic crashes. Mr. Koppell said the bill is on the calendar and awaiting a green light from a vote of the full council.

This is part of the March 20, 2008 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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