Lengthy Island roads are among the many deadliest to stroll and bike on within the state, however few drivers concerned in crashes that kill pedestrians and bicyclists face prison fees, a Newsday knowledge evaluation discovered.
135 Variety of pedestrians and cyclists who died after drivers hit them in Nassau and Suffolk in 2019-20 20 Drivers prosecuted
At the least 135 pedestrians and cyclists died after drivers hit them in Nassau and Suffolk counties in 2019 and 2020, in accordance with the evaluation of preliminary knowledge from the Albany-based Institute for Site visitors Security Administration and Analysis. The Nassau and Suffolk district attorneys have prosecuted 20 of the drivers, in accordance with their workplaces, making a mixed prosecution price of about 15%.
Excluding crashes through which environmental situations or pedestrian or bicyclist error performed a task, the prosecution price was round 30%.
These prosecution ranges mirror the excessive bar state regulation and judicial rulings have set to show that drivers concerned in deadly crashes dedicated crimes, a Nassau County prosecutor and native protection attorneys stated. Transportation security advocates nonetheless say that officers may do extra to stem the lack of life on Lengthy Island roads, by altering visitors legal guidelines, prosecuting drivers extra aggressively and redesigning streets.
What to know
At the least 135 pedestrians and cyclists died after they have been hit by automobiles in Nassau and Suffolk counties in 2019 and 2020, in accordance with a Newsday evaluation of preliminary knowledge.
Nassau and Suffolk district attorneys have prosecuted 20 of the drivers concerned, in accordance with their workplaces — a mixed price of 15%.
The low prosecution price displays the excessive bar state regulation and judicial rulings have set to show drivers concerned in deadly crashes dedicated crimes, sources say.
Marco Conner DiAquoi, deputy director of Transportation Options, a Manhattan-based advocacy group, stated Lengthy Island’s prosecution ranges in such instances are doubtless just like charges elsewhere in New York and nationwide. The New York State Division of Prison Justice Providers, U.S. Division of Justice and state and federal departments of transportation stated their businesses don’t monitor the variety of instances prosecutors deliver in opposition to drivers who kill pedestrians or cyclists.
Nassau had the third-most pedestrian and bicycle owner deaths of counties statewide in 2019, the newest yr for which full knowledge is accessible, after Brooklyn and Queens. Suffolk was fourth. The annual variety of pedestrian and bicycle owner deaths within the two Lengthy Island counties has fluctuated since 2010, however remained principally regular.
“You don’t notice a automobile is a weapon till you’ve seen the injury it might probably do to an individual,” stated Jivanna Bennaeim, of Nice Neck, whose husband was killed by a hit-and-run driver whereas crossing a road in Nice Neck Plaza on Sept. 30, 2016.
Bennaeim stated the collision threw her husband, Oren Bennaeim, 43, headfirst onto the pavement, inflicting a traumatic mind damage that left him in a coma for per week earlier than he died. The driving force was by no means caught, she stated.
“It’s terrible what we went by means of,” Jivanna Bennaeim stated of herself and her 17-year-old son. “We don’t need anybody else to should undergo it.”
72 Pedestrian and bicycle owner deaths in Suffolk in 2019 and 2020* 63 Deaths in Nassau in 2019-20* 13 Drivers prosecuted by Suffolk 7 Drivers prosecuted by Nassau
*2020 knowledge is preliminary
The 135 deaths embrace 114 pedestrians and 21 cyclists, in accordance with the preliminary Institute for Site visitors Security knowledge. Seventy-two deaths have been in Suffolk County and 63 in Nassau. The Institute for Site visitors Security is a nonprofit analysis middle based mostly on the College of Albany that goals to enhance street security.
114 Pedestrian deaths in 2019-20 21 Bike owner deaths in 2019-20
The information lists pedestrian or bicycle owner error or confusion as a contributing think about 38% of the crashes. Environmental situations similar to slippery pavement performed a task in 13%. Elements similar to driver distraction, failure to yield the precise of manner and rushing have been elements in 49%.
38% Proportion of crashes through which pedestrian or bicycle owner error performed a task 49% Proportion of crashes through which elements together with driver distraction, failure to yield or rushing performed a task 13% Proportion of crashes through which environmental elements similar to slippery pavement performed a task
The Suffolk County District Legal professional’s Workplace introduced instances in opposition to 13 drivers for killing pedestrians or cyclists in 2019 and 2020 — a prosecution price of 18%. The speed was 11% in Nassau, the place seven drivers have confronted fees. There are energetic investigations into three different deadly automobile crashes in Nassau in these years, in accordance with the district lawyer’s workplace.
Of the 20 instances introduced, all however one concerned fees for leaving the scene of a crash or driving after ingesting or doing medication. Eight instances are pending, whereas 12 resulted in responsible pleas.
Officers say it is tough to prosecute
Maureen McCormick, government assistant district lawyer within the Nassau County District Legal professional’s Workplace and its former Vehicular Crimes Bureau chief, stated it’s tough to efficiently prosecute drivers who’re sober and stay on the scene.
Whereas New York State regulation contains statutes similar to Aggravated Vehicular Murder and Assault, and Vehicular Manslaughter and Assault, they solely apply to drivers drunk or medication.
Prosecutors can deliver different fees in opposition to drivers, together with criminally negligent murder, manslaughter and reckless diving. However courts have required prosecutors to show more and more excessive ranges of culpability to win convictions, McCormick stated.
“The court docket is making it more durable and more durable to deliver fees,” she stated.
McCormick gave for instance the “rule of two,” an off-the-cuff judicial precedent that requires prosecutors to show two shifting violations or acts of negligence occurred to reveal {that a} driver was criminally negligent. The rule just isn’t codified in any state regulation, however emerged from court docket selections over latest a long time. Site visitors security advocates stated it makes it unreasonably arduous to prosecute drivers in automobile crashes that trigger accidents or dying.
She added that typically pedestrians are at fault, by crossing a road outdoors a crosswalk whereas taking a look at their telephones, for instance.
Brendan Ahern, deputy division chief of the trial division of the Suffolk district lawyer’s workplace, acknowledged that getting convictions has turn into more and more tough through the years, significantly in instances that don’t contain medication or alcohol.
To acquire a whole image of a crash, the DA’s workplace has in place an on-call system through which a prosecutor goes on to the scene of a crash the place a pedestrian or bicycle owner was killed or severely injured. That crew operates 24/7, Ahern stated.
“We’re taking the steps essential to create readability on these instances,” he stated.
Ahern stated the courts additionally take a look at the problem of “ethical blameworthiness,” which means the diploma to which the driving force understood the danger they have been creating.
William Kephart, a Backyard Metropolis lawyer who has defended drivers in a dozen deadly automobile crash instances on Lengthy Island, stated each counties have turn into extra aggressive in pursuing prison fees in opposition to drivers.
“It doesn’t come from a scarcity of curiosity on the DA’s finish,” Kephart stated of the prosecution price. He beforehand labored within the Nassau district lawyer’s workplace.
A 2015 report by Transportation Options, which advocates for higher biking, strolling and public transit choices, discovered that New York Metropolis district attorneys deliver murder fees in opposition to fewer than 7% of drivers who trigger deadly crashes within the metropolis. A 2019 report by transportation security advocacy teams in Philadelphia discovered that drivers have been charged in solely 16% of crashes that killed bicyclists, pedestrians or motorcyclists.
DiAquoi and Daniel Flanzig, one other transportation security advocate, acknowledged the hurdles that prosecutors face in bringing instances in opposition to drivers. However additionally they argued the low prosecution price displays a pro-car bias in regulation enforcement and rejected the notion that every one deadly crashes that don’t set off prison fees are mere accidents.
“We take into account visitors crashes ‘accidents,’ that no one’s at fault, when in actuality there’s in all probability conduct that would’ve been prevented and that would’ve saved a life,” stated Flanzig, a New York Bicycling Coalition board member and Mineola lawyer who represents crash victims.
Distracted or aggressive driving, more and more massive and lethal private automobiles, and streets designed for pace, not security, are all crash elements inside human management — not “acts of God,” DiAquoi stated. He cited statistics from the Nationwide Security Council exhibiting that greater than 90% of automobile crashes nationwide contain human error.
John Corlett, director of public affairs and visitors security companies for AAA Northeast, related Lengthy Island’s price of pedestrian deaths to the nice variety of automobiles within the area.
“It’s inhabitants density,” he stated. Lengthy Island is “very car-reliant.”
New York State Transportation Division spokesman Stephen Canzoneri stated the company has spent greater than $57 million on pedestrian security upgrades on Lengthy Island over the previous 4 years, together with new visitors alerts, elevated medians and brighter indicators and lane markings.
Performing Suffolk Police Commissioner Stuart Cameron stated his division’s efforts to scale back street fatalities have included including a crash analyst within the freeway patrol bureau. The analyst research crash knowledge in order that the division can goal visitors enforcement to essentially the most vital instances and locations, and recommends infrastructure security upgrades to different businesses.
Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder stated decreasing crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists is “of the utmost significance to the police division.” He stated the company prioritizes implementing automobile and visitors legal guidelines and instructing drivers to “use excessive warning” and to yield to pedestrians and cyclists.
Payments take intention at decreasing visitors accidents, deaths
Transportation Options is lobbying lawmakers in Albany to go a bundle of payments aimed toward decreasing visitors accidents and deaths. One would search to finish the rule of two. One other would require details about automobiles on the market to incorporate how harmful they’re to pedestrians and cyclists.
Flanzig stated the district attorneys ought to pursue fees in opposition to extra drivers who kill folks.
“Prosecutors should take an opportunity and be extra aggressive,” he stated. “If the general public is aware of that they are often held criminally liable for killing someone of their automobile, hopeful that can curtail dangerous driving conduct.”
Protection attorneys query whether or not it’s a necessity to broaden street violence legal guidelines or acceptable to prosecute extra drivers for killing pedestrians or cyclists.
“The legal guidelines are fairly enough,” Kephart stated. “My concern is you’re going to take an on a regular basis one who has a lapse of judgment or perceives a state of affairs erroneously, and that causes an accident, and now you’re going to name it prison. That’s harmful, that’s a harmful slope to go down.”
DiAquoi stated the most effective options to street accidents usually are not in courtrooms however on streets themselves. Narrowing roadways to sluggish visitors, constructing protected bike lanes and pedestrian islands, and timing visitors alerts to provide pedestrians a head begin earlier than vehicles are among the many measures have proven to make streets safer for everybody, he stated.
That’s an strategy favored by Bennaeim, a member of Households for Secure Streets, a New York advocacy group. She pushed for security upgrades on the intersection the place her husband was killed, and Nassau County acquired a state grant to hold them out. However within the greater than 4 years since his dying, no enhancements have been made, she stated.
“They nonetheless pace,” she stated of vehicles on the intersection. “It’s horrible to see. You shouldn’t should be afraid to cross the road.”
A Nassau spokesman stated building on the upgrades ought to start this fall.
Jesse Coburn covers transportation and schooling. He is labored at Newsday since 2016.
