Take Care Crossing NYC Streets! Man Hit at E. 42nd & 2nd Ave.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 3/17/06 at 1:13am

When I left work tonight at 11:00 PM a young man was hit by a car at the intersection of E. 42nd and 2nd Ave. He was down and not moving at all and it was so sad. The side of the car was really bashed. He had been hit so hard his shoe was knocked clear to the other side of the intersection on the corner.

I stood over the shoe protecting it for twenty minutes or so and had a guy tell the young cops way across the intersection there about it but they were busy with the intersection traffic and the guy. After the ambulance came and they loaded the young fellow into it, the guy still not moving, I asked a pedestrian to remind them the shoe was there but they weren't paying attention. A young cop came over finally when I was waving and making hand moves like taking a picture and I was telling him "this is evidence." Finally a captain showed up and he got it right away and brought two orange cones over to set up and told the young cop they could determine how fast the car was going from that and it was evidence.

I felt so bad for the guy. Be careful crossing these streets with the aggressive drivers. And if you're at the scene of an accident, remember not to touch and to protect the evidence. Besides a personal injury lawsuit, there could be a civil wrongful death case and or criminal vehicular homicide case in these situations. You will do the injured or the surviving family a favor as you would wish them to do for you.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 3/17/06 at 1:20am

Nom, that is just terrible. I really hope the guy is OK.

Good for you for making sure things were done right.

No one may thank you for caring, but it was the right thing to do. Too many folks think when something happens, it is someone else problem to deal with, and then nobody does.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 3/17/06 at 1:27am

I hope he recovers, too. I just prayed for him in the subway on the way home.

I couldn't help thinking of what his family would go through if he doesn't make it and it didn't look good.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 3/17/06 at 1:30am

If I had left school two minutes earlier yesterday I would have had a billboard fall on me:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1142463012943&call_pageid=968350130169&col=969483202845

There was a lot of blood on the sidewalk. This world is such a random place sometimes. You never know what can happen.

Akiva

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/17/06 at 11:55am

Was the guy text-messaging at the time of the accident?

[Elphaba]

Posted: 3/17/06 at 11:56am

um, take care crossing ANY street....not just NYC streets

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 3/17/06 at 2:27pm

If you'd been there you wouldn't joke about it.

Second Ave. is like 6 lanes of aggressive traffic and they all take the left to go East on 42nd very recklessly without regard for pedestrians crossing the street there. I cross it all the time in broad daylight and it is very dangerous. They should make that left turn illegal or give it an individual light.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 12:47am

That's really sad. I too really hope the man's okay.

But I drive in the city quite a bit and between drivers and pedestrians, it's just a crazy situation. You have the cabs and buses cutting everyone off, randomly stopping (cabs moreso), being all the way in the right line of like a 5-lane avenue and deciding they need to make an immediate left turn and cut everybody off...all the cars that randomly stop, etc.

And as much as we have to be respectful and careful about pedestrians, they need to do the same thing, and I rarely see it. (I'm certainly not accusing this guy or even assessing this situation, just a general comment I'm making from my own experience). The "don't walk" sign means nothing to them. Especially on Broadway around the starting time of performances they just keep walking and walking in packs and it's pretty much impossible for cars to make any turns at all. Then they'll decide they don't think they see a car coming, so walk when cars have a green light, and then cars have to make sure not to hit them. Then there's the people who begin walking when the light's yellow and decide they're going to take forever to cross. If you're turning, and it seems you can go, a pedestrian not paying attention will be in their own world and cut right in front of your car, causing you to make a really quick stop.

Obviously at times I'm a pedestrian, and I'm not going to lie and say I never walk if there's a "don't walk" sign but I do try to be courteous. If I see 5 cars are waiting to turn and I get the blinking stop light, I let the cars go. Or I too do sometimes go when as I begin to walk the light turns yellow. However, I see that and I dash across the street to get out of the way of the cars by the time they get the green light.

I wish there was a way to improve this driver-pedestrian relationship and make things generally safer and more accomodating to everyone...but I don't know if that's possible.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 10:08am

A motor vehicle, when used recklessly, is a deadly weapon.

[orion59]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 10:46am

As is a chainsaw

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 10:50am

_____2
E=MC

You are all physicists, right? Updated On: 3/18/06 at 10:50 AM

[Elphaba]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 11:14am

as is a knife, a candlestick, or a rope

[orion59]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 11:49am

Apparently, even a billboard that isn't properly secured can be a menace. Thankfully it wasn't a billboard for Garnier Nutrisse. Imagine walking down the street and seeing a 50 foot Sarah Jessica Parker plummeting down onto you.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 12:01pm

That is probably a bit like what Catherine the Great must have felt.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 1:15pm

Nah, she was into it.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 1:30pm

I live for statements like: "If I had left school two minutes earlier yesterday I would have had a billboard fall on me."

[Anakela]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 1:54pm

wickedrentq- loved your post! I have only lived in NYC since Oct 2005, and I have already seen 2 people hit by cars (one at 8th/45th, one at Broadway/51st) so I am always uber-paranoid about watching what cars are going where, turning where, so that I can make sure that I am crossing the street ok...I have now become adept at predicting which cars will blow through a red light, which has saved me a couple of times.

[orion59]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 3:17pm

Yeah Namo, I heard about a bad car accident on a New Hampshire highway recently and realized that if I had been out driving on the highway that day, at that moment and lived in New Hampshire, that could have been me. It really makes you think.

[new_philosophy_girl]

Posted: 3/25/06 at 7:56pm

I go to school at John Jay...which is at 59th and Amsterdam. At the beginning of every semester the professors will warn the students about crossing the streets. I think the number is like 20 students will get hit by a car every year....