Cops crack down on dangerous drivers

Posted

In an effort to reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries in Riverdale, the 50th Precinct is participating in a two-week traffic safety initiative that will continue through Sunday along the Broadway corridor. 

The initiative, which began on Sept. 2, is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero program. It includes a series of crackdowns on moving violations such as reckless driving, speeding, failure to yield and running a stoplight or street sign.

According to Community Affairs Officer Mindy Ramos, the precinct is also issuing tickets to drivers who text or use hand-held mobile devices while driving. 

“We’re always enforcing cellphone and texting [violations],” said Officer Ramos, who added that the initiative specifically covers Broadway and West 225th Street up to 242nd Street. “We have too many pedestrians being killed. We have that big strip, so that’s what we’re going to focus on.”

A recent Motor Vehicle Collision numerous collisions on Broadway — with Broadway and West 231st Street having seven collisions in July. 

According to 2013 crash stats from the NYPD, 286 people died on NYC streets in 2013, and nearly 55,000 people were injured. This year, Transportation Alternatives’ Report Card: Six Months of Vision Zero Traffic Enforcement reported that summonses for speeding increased by 32 percent and summonses for failure to yield increased by 153 percent for the first six months of 2014, in comparison to the same period of 2013. 

But according to its analysis of Vision Zero’s early impact at various precincts, “wide disparities exist between the heroic efforts of NYPD precincts that have increased their enforcement of the most dangerous violations and adjacent precincts where summonsing has actually decreased.”

Tanisia Morris, Bill de Blasio, Vision Zero, 50th Precinct, Collisions, Broadway, Crash, Pedestrian Safety, Safe Driving,
Page 1 / 2