From A Walk in the Park:A 55-year-old woman out for a walk was struck by a bicyclist and seriously hurt last Thursday in Prospect Park. She was brought to Kings County Hospital where she was put into a medically induced coma, A Walk In the Park has learned.
Brooklyn resident and avid power-walker Linda Cohen was hit by a speeding bike on November 3rd at approximately 2:50pm when she stepped onto the West Drive, according to sources.
The accident occurred near on the drive near the Vanderbilt St. Playground opposite the Well(house) drive junction with Lake Drive. The area is the steepest grade of the park drives that goes down for a 1/4 mile. A source said she was hit by bike racer.
The cyclist remained at the scene.
A number of bike accidents in the park have recently been reported. Park goers have long advocated for greater enforcement of speeding bicyclists.
Ms. Cohen remains sedated and in an induced coma. She is a long-time and beloved volunteer in the park.
20 comments:
How is it they can blow right through a red light and not get a summons? The Cyclist should be charged with reckless endangerment.If you're riding at 30 mph and don't think anything can happen,you're an asshole.
What is the cyclist's name?
Cyclist don't get summonses because cycling is good for the environment. For every person who rides a bike, ten trees are saved, Isn't breathing clean air worth the safety of pedestrians.
How do you know there was a red light?
It is a shame that these accidents continue to happen. Bicyclists should be required to register their bikes and adhere to the same traffic laws as motorists. There needs to be a crackdown on reckless bicyclists.
Yep--Since these cyclists maniacs are not required to carry nor be subject to driving point penalty's who pays that $100,000 or 2 million dollar hospital bill ?
Odds are the cyclist bum doesn't have a pot to piss in or own a house, car ect
This "free for all" is bullshit !
-Joe
Right, because thanks to licensing there are no reckless motorists and no accidents or injuries or fatalities resulting from car accidents.
"If you're riding at 30 mph and don't think anything can happen,you're an asshole."
But I'm sure you have no problem with people driving at 30 mph. Because nothing ever happens when people drive cars.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti car at all. I just find it disingenuous when people ignore the astounding number of serious and sometimes fatal car accidents and try to make a case that bicycles are so dangerous from the occasional accident.
You can always tell who is a speeding bicyclist by their ass.
And who's to say how many times this cyclist has blown red lights ?
When you have no consequences people will continue to drive or bi-cycle like maniacs.
These cyclists need too be register, licensed and insured so repeat offenders can pay the price for or face jail for vehicular assault, DWI, CWI, BWI just like everybody else.
I hate these assholes! A good 1/3 of them in NYC are Euroshitz here to squat and get jollys. Make cyclists on have records, pay the price "and or" lose privileges, jail, face high insurance premiums just like motorists who get caught breaking laws. Felony vehicular assault.
Hitting them where it hurts is the only way to curb this.
A $50 fine without driving points and enormous insurgence surcharges is just a meaningless tax to continue to break laws and cause accidents.
Bottom line: Laws and tickets mean NOTHING without consequences.
-Joe
Cyclists should be required to be licensed and their bikes have plates.
We don't need any more bike lanes either.
They're a waste of taxpayers' money.
I think a lot of these bikers are on speed or weed.
I take it Joe is all for significantly increasing the fines for red light camera violations then.
Maybe if these drivers were licensed maybe moving violations wouldn't be such a common everyday occurrence.
Expecting cyclists to slow down on steep downhills is just against human nature.
In areas where cyclists speed, your survival instincts should kick in and look to see if any are coming at you.
this biker should be punished with a two year internship at NYU MEDICAL CENTER'S RUSK INST.
Most of the patients are victims and riders of two wheel vehicles. most are paraplegic and brain injured.
Continuing the tradition of Queens Crap quality oommenting!
You guys are a piece of work.
So ya wanna cycle?
Then move to China where there are more biker friendly facilities!
And those illegal Latino day workers on their Mexican Mercedes are creating havoc...riding their bikes on the sidewalks!
The problem is, cyclists in our parks do not observe traffic signals and speed limits. For most of the time, they are looking down on their pedaling, and not on the road ahead.
Yes, licensing is surely the answer. Just ask the guy with the suspended license who killed a woman quickly backing up to snag a parking spot. His license had been suspended 23 times. But they punished him harshly. It might take him some time to come up with that hefty $500 he was fined for killing a woman while recklessly driving with a suspended license.
We must make these people pay! Right.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/ny_metro/Paterson_man_backing_SUV_into_parking_space_strikes_kills_woman.html
http://gothamist.com/2011/11/11/unlicensed_driver_kills_pedestrian.php
while in nyc ,parking my vehicle , i have had to abruptly stop backing up for a jerk who decided to cross behind my moving car, too many times.
no violations on my license at all.
What red light, 30 mph- where are you people getting your information? And cyclist ARE supposed to follow the rules of the road.
This article (http://gothamist.com/2011/11/09/prospect_park_volunteer_in_coma_aft.php) provides some background on this terrible accident. I recall Rangers handing out literature to all riders and warnings to fast ones in Central Park. Tickets followed a few educational weekends. Perhaps Brooklyn needs a velodrome too, for this kind of racing cyclist. This accident seems to be not one of traffic laws violated (if the park was closed to traffic) but of wrongly practicing a high speed sport in a mixed use park. Very sorry for the family, and hope the medically induced coma contributes to her recovery.
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