Originally Posted by
rumrunn6
I get NYC traffic law updates from a NYC traffic attorney I hired a few years back to help with an outrageous ticket. His firm was great & it was dismissed.
FYI: Vision Zero and You!
In 2014 Mayor DeBlasio instituted his “Vision Zero” initiative. The overall aim of the program is to eliminate all traffic deaths and serious injuries on NYC streets by 2024.
Today in NYC, approximately 4000 people are injured and more than 250 are killed each year in traffic crashes. On average, vehicles serious injure or kill a person in NYC every two hours according to the official Vision Zero website.
There have been many different policies enacted as part of Vision Zero, including the reduction of the unposted speed limit from 30mph to 25mph, and the implementation of speed cameras in many of the boroughs.
Perhaps one of the most noticeable Vision Zero policy has been the increased enforcement of offenses for failure to yield to pedestrians.
Failure to yield to pedestrian offenses are sometimes charged as “Failure to yield right of way” or “Failure to yield at turn” tickets. These are all being treated very seriously by both the NYPD and the NYS DMV traffic courts. Any motorist involved in a pedestrian knock-down incident will also have to attend a civil OATH (Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings) hearing in addition to possible traffic violations summons.
I feel like in my case, Vision Zero just meant the police will try to play down the incidence. Last year, A commercial van opened the door in front of me while I was riding, causing my left shoulder to hit the door and my helmeted head to ram into the back of a USPS truck that was driving by. Ambulance and police came, where they asked me a few questions before I was taken away to the ER where they gave me the whole ER treatment along with scans everywhere. After countless attempt to retrieve the police report so I can go claim against the driver who door'd me, it turned out that none were filed. All that was filed was some sort of incidence report in which it specified that I swerved to avoid the door and flipped myself over... on a 45LB citibike. The driver's license wasn't even taken down, so I was stuck with this big medical bill.
I feel like maybe this is how all precincts tries to downplay incidences in order to bring down the statistics. I had a phone that disappeared from me, where I locked it, got a call, was to meet for it to be returned, tracked it and had it powered off with plenty of battery left "on his way to meet me", saw subsequent failed attempts at powering on due passcode requirement. Report it to the cops, where they insists it is a lost item instead of stolen item. Another time was when the basement window was kicked in twice within 10min of each other, only being saved by the 2nd pane of the dual pane window. Reported it to the cops, where they kept saying it looks like criminal mischief instead of attempted breaking and entering. Read some neighborhood forum later where many mentioned a spate of break-ins. Cops knew there were break-ins, but still trying to downplay it.