City & State NY will be hosting a full day New York in Transit Summit on Jan. 30 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. This summit will bring together experts across sectors to assess the current state of New York’s transportation systems, break down recent legislative actions, and look towards the future of all things coming and going in New York. Join Keynote Speaker Polly Trottenberg, commissioner of the NYC Department of Transportation, along with agency leaders, elected officials, and advocates to assess the current state of New York’s transportation systems, and discuss the future. Use the code STREETSBLOG for a 25-percent discount when you RSVP here!
Two people were killed in nearly as many hours by the drivers of massive trucks on Tuesday morning — one a 10-year-old boy and the other an elderly woman, a pattern of carnage that picks up where last year left off.
The first fatal crash occurred at about 7 a.m. when the driver of a city garbage truck hit the boy and his mom as they walked to school on 57th Avenue, near 97th Street, in Corona, police said. The truck driver was exiting out of a driveway before the crash, according to mediareports.
New York City police break up another ultra-Orthodox funeral as crowds gather 1 arrested; 2 days after mayor’s warning to community, NYPD issues 10 summonses at 2 synagogues in South. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. The latest tweets from @hasidic1.
Paramedics rushed the mom to Elmhurst Hospital in critical condition, and her son, Shree Panthee, died at the hospital, police said.
Table of Contents: Return to article The Hasidic Rabbinate, Part II Appendix: The Succession of Hasidic Dynasties Note: Teachers in each Generation are marked with an asterisk.; surnames are highlighted in bold. First Generation.
Our office has been informed that a mother & her child were struck by a sanitation truck near 57th Ave & 97 St by LeFrak City this morning, right in our district — I'm heartbroken to say the child didn't make it.
We're waiting from @NYPDnews & @NYCSanitation for further updates.
— Jessica Ramos (@jessicaramos) January 7, 2020
Since the start of 2018, there have been 45 reported crashes on the one block of 57th Avenue between 96th and 98th streets in the dangerous neighborhood. In all, 11 people were injured in those crashes, including seven to pedestrians.
The Department of Sanitation has taken the driver off the road and placed him on modified duty, pending an internal investigation.
Since 2015, DSNY drivers have killed four people, including three since 2018, according to agency spokeswoman Dina Montes — a stark difference from the private sanitation industry, whose drivers have killed more than two dozen people since 2016.
The second fatal crash occurred about four hours later in Brooklyn, when 68-year-old Judith Wieder was struck by the driver of a cement truck as she crossed New Utrecht Avenue right before 49th Street.
Disturbing video posted to Twitter shows Wieder, walking with a cane, start to cross the avenue while the light is still red. Wieder makes it about half-way across, and is directly in front of the massive truck, as the light turns green and the driver hits the gas to head north on New Utrecht Avenue — clearly oblivious to the fact that the woman is right in front of him.
The truck hood obscures the woman entirely — one of the reasons truck drivers were responsible for a plurality of road deaths last year.
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— Hasidic2 (@hasidic_1) January 7, 2020
The driver from Ferrara Brothers — a Flushing-based concrete company — stayed at the scene. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since the start of 2018, there have been a total of 25 reported crashes on New Utrecht Avenue between 47th and 49th streets, causing 10 injuries, including three to pedestrians.
In both fatal crashes on Tuesday, police did not issue any tickets or make any arrests. A spokeswoman for the NYPD would not answer Streetsblog’s standard list of questions about whether the drivers were speeding or distracted, despite video proving at least one was not paying attention to the road in front of him.
The boy and elderly woman are now the third and fourth people killed by drivers so far this year. Last year, a total of 219 people, including 122 pedestrians and 29 cyclists, died on New York City streets.
Both kids and the elderly are often the victims of traffic violence — 10-year-old Panthee is the now the seventh child under the age of 11 who has been fatally struck by drivers since January, 2019, and 68-year-old Wieder is now at least the 48th person above age 64 to be killed by someone behind the wheel.
It's also startling how many elderly people are killed by drivers — last year, at least 47 people age 65 or above were killed by someone behind the wheel. That's 31 percent of all victims.
Rules For Hasidic Women
— Julianne Cuba (@Julcuba) January 6, 2020
Transportation Alternatives again reiterated the dire need for safer streets, and for Mayor de Blasio to quickly act before another life is lost — instead of just offering his thoughts and prayers.
“Tragedies like these are not accidents, but predictable and preventable results of policies that prioritize moving traffic ahead of protecting people,” said Executive Director Danny Harris. “In moments of crisis, we don’t need hopes and prayers from our elected leaders; we need immediate action. We urge Mayor Bill de Blasio and members of the New York City Council to ensure that every New Yorker has the right to safe passage on our streets, and no New Yorker has to walk in fear.”
Transportation Alternatives will join other safe-street advocates on Saturday for a modern day take on historic marches by mothers seeking to reclaim streets from car drivers and give them back to the people.
Update: This story has been updated to reflect the names of the victims, and to reflect that the 10-year-old boy’s mother’s leg was not amputated, as per initial media reports.
Police officers issued a series of summonses and tickets to Hasidic Jews and institutions in Williamsburg and Borough Park Thursday, making good on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s promise that, in the wake of a large funeral which he personally had a hand in breaking up, police would stop issuing warnings for violating state pandemic rules.
The officers handed out more than 75 summonses, according to one Orthodox media outlet, visiting open synagogues to check if the people inside were violating social distancing rules. State rules have allowed houses of worship to remain open, and people can use those spaces if they maintain social distancing, but prayer services are prohibited.
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The spike in summonses comes two days after a funeral for a respected Hasidic rabbi in Williamsburg which, though planned in direct coordination with community police officers from the local 90th Precinct, drew a crowd of well over 1,000 and was promptly shut down by an influx of officers and de Blasio himself. Afterward, de Blasio singled out the “Jewish community” in a tweet about the incident, testing his long and intimate relationship with Hasidic leaders.
On Thursday morning, residents shared pictures on WhatsApp of police vehicles from the Strategic Response Group — a rapid-deployment unit used for civil unrest and crowd control — lining main thoroughfares in the heavily Hasidic parts of the neighborhood.
Hasidic Jewish Women
One video showed police officers standing in the entrance of a synagogue on Wallabout Street.
פאליס יעצט אין דינוב שיהל, זיי גייען ארים צי יעדע שיהל אין ווילימסבורג pic.twitter.com/Czw96mPBv9— Hasidic2 (@hasidic_1) April 30, 2020
A police official told the Forward that, at the Wallabout Street synagogue and at a synagogue on Hooper Street, police found numerous people inside. In both locations, some entry doors were chained closed and there were trash bags taped on the inside of the windows. Police issued 11 summonses total for both locations, six for violations of social distancing and five for fire code violations.
The string of summonses was met with split reactions in the Orthodox world, with some thanking police for enforcing the rules and others decrying what they described as unconstitutional targeting of a minority group.
Today in #Williamsburg. THANK YOU #NYPD! We need MORE enforcement! Too many people have died. I spoke to a very sick ultra-orthodox #COVID patient who told me he wished police would be more aggressive. #EnoughIsEnough via @YWNhttps://t.co/94mBk6GYvipic.twitter.com/Uw1rE6Telr— Rabbi E. Poupko (@RabbiPoupko) April 30, 2020
Officers from @NYPDnews fail to social distance B4 entering a Congregation in Williamsburg to check on distancing. A pic from inside suggests all was good. The entry is a violation of constitutional rights as officers had no legal reason to think violations are taking place. pic.twitter.com/HfvVVkSquR— OJPAC (@OJPAC) April 30, 2020
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Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at feldman@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman