Two people were transported to hospital last week following a road accident on Sedgwick Avenue in University Heights.

 

The NYPD said that on Thursday, May 19, at approximately 9.05 p.m., the collision took place in front of 2300 Sedgwick Avenue.

 

A police official said, “An 18-year-old male of The Bronx was operating a 2000 Mercedes-Benz at a high rate of speed, and turned around a bed and lost control of the vehicle, striking three, parked, unoccupied vehicles.”  The police official added, “The driver and [an] 18-year-old male passenger were removed to St. Barnabas Hospital for medical treatment.”

 

 

DOT highlighted in the context of the data that in 2021, more than half of vehicles that received one violation did not receive a second. They said since 2014, the majority of cited vehicles have only one or two violations, and that as of December 2020, speeding at camera locations during hours of operation had dropped by an average of 72 percent. “Injuries have declined 14% on school speed zone corridors with cameras, [and] 31% percent of all on-street traffic fatalities in NYC took place in school speed zones that had cameras, but at times when they were not legally permitted to operate: overnight and on weekends,” the DOT spokesperson added.

 

DOT added that the State legislature recently reached an agreement to extend the speed camera program, and expand the hours of operation from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., to 24 hours, seven days a week. Norwood News had reported last year on calls by the DOT to expand the hours of operation of camera usage around school zones, in the form of a then-pending piece of Assembly/Senate legislation, S5602/A6681, and again this year, most recently on May 5 [in print], at which time both senate and assembly bills were still at the committee level stage of the legislative process, and had not yet passed in the State legislature. That is still true as of May 24.

 

We, therefore, queried with DOT if the recently referenced State legislation relates to the expanded use of cameras everywhere or just around school zones. Recent remarks by both the City’s DOT commissioner and Mayor Eric Adams appear to refer to a “24/7 Speed Camera Agreement,” and not specifically to bills, S5602/A6681. We were informed that the new State law relates specifically to [the expansion of] hours of operation [of camera usage] and that DOT is still operating the cameras within a radius of 750 schools zones across the City, employing roughly 2,000 cameras.

 

DOT commissioner, Ydanis Rodriguez, said recently, in the context of the recently announced camera use expansion,  “Traffic safety has been the focus of all of our discussions with Albany lawmakers. The data speaks for itself: speed cameras save lives. With the majority of traffic fatalities now happening overnight[s] and on weekends, expanding the automated enforcement hours of operation is a huge accomplishment for the City and for the safety of New Yorkers.”

 

The commissioner continued, “This win wouldn’t have been possible without the leadership and support of Transportation Alternatives, Families for Safe Streets, Regional Plan Association (RPA), NY League of Conservation Voters, StreetsPAC, State Senator Andrew Gounardes, Assembly Member Deborah Glick, Speakers Carl Heastie, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Mayor Eric Adams. We look forward to working with Speaker Adams and the Council to take this to the finish line. The DOT will continue working around the clock to reduce road fatalities throughout the city – and ensure we’re improving traffic safety in historically underinvested communities.”

 

Meanwhile, the mayor said on May 19, “Make no mistake about it, this is a major victory for New Yorkers that will save lives and help stem the tide of traffic violence that has taken too many. We are investing a historic $900 million in street safety and redesigning 1,000 intersections across the city – but we cannot do this alone, and my team and I have been working closely with our partners in Albany for months to get this done.” Adams added, “I want to thank Speaker Heastie, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Senator Gounardes, Assemblymember Glick, and all of my colleagues who helped us take this significant step. I now look forward to working with our partners in the City Council to deliver safer streets and a safer city for New Yorkers.”

 

During March 2022 alone, there were 1,555 motor vehicle collisions in The Bronx. This compares with 1,432 collisions in Manhattan, 2,817 in Brooklyn, 4,402 in Queens and 448 on Staten Island. Of the 1,555 collisions in The Bronx, 553 were fatal, 353 involved the motorist being injured, two resulted in the motorist being killed, 267 involved a passenger being injured, none involved a passenger being killed, 29 involved a cyclist being injured, none involved a cyclist being killed, 140 involved a pedestrian being injured and one involved a pedestrian being killed.