A 15-year-old girl died last night after being hit by a truck while riding a bike with another 13-year-old girl in East Village, Manhattan. The incident took place shortly after 21, at the intersection of East 14th Street and First Avenue, one of the main crossing points between the district and Union Square.
According to the first police reconstruction reported by CBS New York, the truck proceeded west along 14th Street and was turning right on First Avenue when he hit the two girls, who traveled on the same bike.
Both were taken to Bellevue Hospital. The fifteen-year-old, who arrived in critical condition, died shortly after; the thirteen-year-old was admitted in stable conditions.
The driver of the truck remained on the spot and was questioned by the police. At the moment no arrest has been announced and NYPD Highway Patrol is investigating the causes of the accident. The authorities have not yet established publicly who had priority at the time of the turn.
According to NBC New York, several city cameras in the area could have recorded the impact and will be used by investigators to rebuild truck and bicycle movements in seconds before the collision.
The images shot after the accident show the bike stuck under the middle. Several tests, including CBS and NBC, have identified it as a Citi Bike. The New York Times, in its first reconstruction, pointed out that the NYPD had not yet officially confirmed that the bike belonged to the bike sharing service. This is why further clarification is expected.
Also on the truck the first reconstructions provided different descriptions. The New York Times verified that the name and phone number of Badger Infrastructure Solutions appeared on the middle, a private company providing excavation services and infrastructure works. A company manager contacted by the newspaper Friday evening did not comment on the incident.
The intersection between 14th Street and First Avenue is particularly complex because it concentrates several traffic flows. First Avenue is one of the main axes used by cyclists to move north to Manhattan, while along 14th Street also transit the bus lines M14 and numerous vehicles to and from East Side.
Some residents interviewed after the accident described the intersection as problematic, especially for turn right from 14th Street to First Avenue. However, these are evidences collected on the spot and not a conclusion of the investigation: to determine whether the characteristics of the intersection have played a role in the incident will serve the reconstruction of the NYPD.
The death of the 15-year-old arrives a few days after the presentation of Vision Zero Reimagined, the new ten-year plan with which New York intends to further reduce deaths and serious injuries on the roads.
The plan presented on Tuesday by City Hall contains more than one hundred interventions and objectives concerning motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, heavy vehicles and road infrastructure. Among the measures envisaged there is the installation each year of physical protections or other safety measures in at least one thousand intersections, in addition to the extension of the protected bike network and the redesign of the roads considered more dangerous.
One of the points of the plan is specifically about large vehicles. According to the administration, larger and heavier vehicles produce averagely more serious consequences when involved in accidents, especially for pedestrians and cyclists. The city intends to promote trucks with better safety features and transfer a part of the freight transport from road to rail, waterways and cargo bikes.
Vision Zero Reimagined also provides for action on the turns and visibility to the crossroads. The program includes the so-called hardened daylighting: the installation of physical elements near the corners of the streets to prevent vehicles from parking too close to intersections and making pedestrians and cyclists more visible to those who are turning.
The new plan arrives twelve years after the introduction of Vision Zero in New York. According to the data reported by the city, compared to the period before the start of the program in 2014 the dead on the roads decreased altogether 30 percent. Cars and other motor vehicles continue to be involved in almost 90 percent of fatal accidents in the city.
The Friday evening incident is still too recent so that it can be used to determine whether one of the interventions foreseen by the new plan could have avoided it. The police must first clarify the position of the bicycle, the sequence of the turn and who had the precedence.
The footage from East 14th Street and First Avenue could provide the most important answers.
L’articolo A 15-year-old girl died from a truck while she was cycling in East Village proviene da IlNewyorkese.
