News Bay Ridge

Bay Ridge officials search for answers as car crash stats explode

January 18, 2019 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann. Photo: Paula Katinas/Brooklyn Eagle
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The unusually high number of car crashes in Southwest Brooklyn is starting to get some serious attention from city officials.

In the wake of the revelation that 17 car accidents took place in the course of just a single day, Jan. 14, Councilmember Justin Brannan and Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann unearthed even more troubling statistics as officials scrambled to come up with ways to get drivers to obey traffic laws and investigate whether changes to transportation infrastructure are warranted.

There were 3,312 car crashes in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018. This is 400 more than the average number of collisions in other Brooklyn neighborhoods during that same time period, according to Brannan, who said the statistics show a serious public safety problem on local streets.

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Beckmann revealed another shocking statistic: In 2018, 569 motorists driving within the territory covered by the 68th Precinct were issued tickets for driving without a license.

“That number was astounding to me,” Beckmann told the Brooklyn Eagle. “It’s a big concern that a lot of unlicensed operators are traversing the streets of our district.”

Brannan wrote on Twitter that he has contacted NYPD and DOT, and over the next few weeks, “we’ll have education and enforcement initiatives to combat reckless and distracted driving.”

Both NYPD and DOT “get it,” Brannan tweeted, adding that the agencies understand the real danger lurking behind the statistics. “This is about life and death,” he wrote.

Beckmann, who has been district manager of the community board for 15 years, said she has never seen things this bad. “In terms of the number of calls coming into our office reporting speeding cars, this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” she said. “There is a lot of carelessness out there.”

Beckman, who grew up in Carroll Gardens, speaks from many years of experience in city government. Prior to her tenure as district manager, she served as a top aide to Stephen DiBrienza, a City Council member who represented Park Slope for 15 years starting in the mid- 1980s.

The impetus behind the many accidents in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights is unclear. The rise of cellphones and electronic devices could be factors that distract drivers, but local officials pointed out that cellphones are everywhere — not just in Southwest Brooklyn.

Spectrum News NY1 reported that one of the 17 car crashes that took place on Jan. 14 happened on 11th Avenue and 74th Street in Dyker Heights, an intersection with a four-way stop that might be confusing to drivers who don’t know when they’re supposed to yield.

Beckmann said she agreed with Brannan that a combination of enforcement and education is required to address the situation.

Brannan told NY1 that in requesting more NYPD enforcement, he isn’t referring to parking tickets but to more summonses issued to speeding drivers.

One problem that Beckmann has noticed is “daylighting space” on corners. Drivers are prohibited from parking too close to a stop sign at an intersection. “You’re supposed to leave some daylight between your car and the stop sign so that a car approaching the corner can have good visibility to see if there is oncoming traffic,” she told the Eagle.

Community Board 10 has heard complaints from residents who charge that drivers routinely ignore the rules and park right underneath the stop sign.


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3 Comments

  1. Jim McCarthy

    It’s not really a huge mystery:

    1) many New Yorkers don’t begin driving until fairly late and, as a result, are not exactly dexterous in commanding their vehicles or developing the basic cognitive skills of driving

    2) this is combined with a chronic lack of situational awareness for obvious 2019 cultural reasons

    3) this toxic brew is accentuated with a noxious, belligerent stupidity when behind the wheel (i.e. relentlessly blast the horn because you have to wait a whole 35 seconds while some poor unskilled shmoe trys to parallel park, and then try to make up for your crucial lost time by surging to 70 mph on some narrow residential street and then executing a rolling stop through the next red light).

    My former landlord was recently hit (while walking on the sidewalk no less) in Bay Ridge by some unlicensed teenage moron who didn’t even have the skills to keep the damn car on asphalt. If only NYPD was half as aggressive in enforcing moving violations as they are parking violations. All in all, it’s probably hopeless until there is some grand cultural change that lifts us out of the default state of self indulgent suckitude.

    And I would emphasize that yes, NYers are far worse than most drivers in other parts of the US.

    January 19, 2019 at 8:09 am
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    • Aly

      That’s not really what the article is addressing. Why are there more accidents specifically in the Bay Ridge area than there are in other areas of NYC? Yeah, NYers are probably worse drivers than citizens in other states. But why is one specific area so much worse than the rest of the city? Your comment doesn’t address that at all.

      February 11, 2019 at 3:14 pm
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      • Jim McCarthy

        I’m not a traffic expert. I don’t know that there is sufficient available data to even begin to address that. I’d venture that the answer is complex, dependent on physical infrastructure as well as sociological factors.

        I’d say that BR generally has substantially more alcohol-fueled activity than the average city neighborhood, due to the bars on 3rd Avenue.

        Does BR have a higher proportion of young people (particularly young men) than the average city neighborhood?

        One thing that seems clear is that 4th is a wide avenue which encourages excessive speed. This is a known phenomenon. Often at night, speeds up to 80-100 mph and, commonly, idiots essentially racing each other.

        February 12, 2019 at 7:58 am
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