This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated June 21, 2024
Yet another case of a large vehicle making a turn and driving through a pedestrian in a crosswalk with the right of way, killing them. It is like the same deadly story is on repeat in Brooklyn. This same scenario keeps playing out with such frequency that at this point, local media can just use a similar article they recently published, updating the date, location, type of vehicle, and the name and age of the victim in the latest instance of traffic violence.
In this latest case, the fatality occurred on Wednesday, June 12 at 92nd Street and Dahlgren Place. The vehicle that was involved was a Department of Transportation bucket truck. The name of the victim was Antonio Conigliaro, age 86.
Video shared by local media from a camera at a house a few doors down from the intersection where Conigliaro was struck and killed clearly shows what happened. While Conigliaro was walking along 92nd Street and midway through the crosswalk, the DOT truck that was also traveling along 92nd Street in the opposite direction made a right turn, driving through the crosswalk. As reported, the driver continued through the intersection, and the truck drove through the 86-year-old man, decapitating him.
In local Facebook community groups, witnesses and passersby shared what they saw at 92nd Street and Dahlgren Place. A grizzly scene. Children screaming. Horrified onlookers gasping. My thoughts are with the loved ones of Antonio Conigliaro during this extremely difficult time. After making it to 86, this should not have been the way his long life ended.
New York City is currently on track to record more traffic fatalities in any year since the Vision Zero program era began in 2014. Through the first quarter of 2024, 60 people died due to traffic violence. That figure is 50 percent higher than what it was in 2018 at the same point.
Driver and vehicle passenger deaths were 63 percent higher than previous first quarters since Vision Zero began, while SUVs and other large vehicles were involved in 79 percent of crashes that resulted in the deaths of pedestrians and cyclists in the first quarter of 2024.
The statistics also revealed that there were two times as many cyclist deaths during the first three months of 2024 than during the average Vision Zero first quarter. No pedestrians were killed by moped riders or cyclists.
As the Adams administration continues to be criticized – rightfully so – for failing to to even come close to keeping up with their own goals for implementing protected bike lanes and daylighting spots near intersections, those failures seem to be contributed from the number of deaths we are seeing on our roadways. Of pedestrians killed during the first quarter of the year, 89 percent of the intersections where those fatalities occurred had no daylighting spots.
Daylighting, the practice of removing parking spots immediately adjacent to an intersection corner, has been proven to increase visibility for both drivers and pedestrians, and reduce traffic crashes. The Adams administration is still behind on its own plan to daylight 1,000 intersections per year. Anecdotally, most New Yorkers will tell you that enforcement around existing daylighting spots is severely lacking, as many such “No Parking Anytime” spots can often be seen occupied by a parked vehicle, typically overnight when visibility is reduced even more.
Brooklyn and Queens have seen the majority of pedestrians who are struck by vehicles, with the two boroughs accounting for three of every five such cases in New York City. As Brooklynites, we keep seeing and hearing the stories of these tragedies. The statistics bear out that traffic violence in our borough and city truly is an epidemic.
Following the passage of Sammy’s Law, New York City should see its typical speed limit lowered by five miles per hour. As drivers, we need to slow down and diligently watch for pedestrians now, and do so even when nobody – or no camera – is looking. It is important for all of us to be good neighbors and decent community members by showing we respect the value of everyone’s life when we are operating a vehicle that can so easily maim or kill pedestrians or cyclists.
