Traffic Violence

Earlier this month, a drunk driver plowed onto a Williamsburg sidewalk at 3 a.m., seriously injuring three people and killing one. The scene painted by witnesses was reminiscent of a bloody war movie—a severed leg, a body impaled on a fence, and people running in fear. While bystanders tried to aid the victims, ripping their shirts into tourniquets to stop the bleeding, the driver tried to flee. When he was stopped by still more heroic New Yorkers, he hopped in the passenger seat and acted clueless about what had happened. He was an NYPD officer scheduled to work in less than four hours. This episode is tragically emblematic of the NYPD’s relationship to NYC’s efforts to end traffic violence, a campaign known as Vision Zero. Both with their actions and inaction, the NYPD has driven the violence in our streets and acted clueless about what has caused the carnage.