Is It SAFE to Walk or Park In Hudson?

About two years ago, at my suggestion, 5th Ward council member Vicky Daskaloudi requested of Police Chief Mishanda Franklin that during her HPD reports to the council she mention any traffic "accidents" that involved pedestrians or bicyclists during the previous month.  If a pedestrian or bicyclist had been hit by a vehicle -- whether killed, injured or uninjured -- Mishanda was to let the council know about it the following month.  And that practice was soon employed; Mishanda mentioned a few pedestrian/bicycle incidents when she wasn't on maternity leave. Late last year, Captain Miller, standing in for Chief Franklin while she was on maternity leave, mentioned that an ebiker on the bike path along Joslen Avenue had been hit to the ground by a car that was turning into the Fireman's home.  (One wonders if that driver was issued a traffic ticket for failing to yield the right of way to a biker.  Doubtful.)

In HPD's own monthly Vehicle Accident report, there is a heading titled Accident Involving Pedestrian (or there used to be -- more on that later).  About every two or three months, there is at least one such incident listed under that heading.  I don't know if the report has always had this heading, but it has certainly had it the past two years or so. 

On December 18th, a bit after 5 pm (likely in the dark or near dark), at the intersection of Park Place and Warren, a woman was struck by a Jeep Wrangler as it turned off of Warren into the crosswalk.  Here is some of what was written in HPD's "primary case report," which is likely an internal accident report:  Patrol responded to Park Pl and Warren Street where a female was observed laying in the roadway screaming.  [The driver] stated he struck the female on accident.  He stated he was travelling west on Warren Street when he made a right turn onto Park Place headed north and he heard a bang and could hear a female screaming so he came to a stop. He exited his vehicle and ran over to the female to check on her.  While patrol was speaking with [the driver] he stated that he never saw the female in the cross walk and that she came out of nowhere.

Here are some of the details that can be found in HPD's NY State DMV Police Accident Report for this incident:  The operator of V1 stated that he did not see the female in the crosswalk when he made the right turn.  V1 operator believes that she must have stepped out in front of his vehicle.  V2 [the "female" pedestrian] stated that she was crossing in the cross walk headed west when police arrived. [That makes absolutely no sense!]  V2 sustained a [redacted] from the incident and was transported to Columbia Memorial Hospital by Greenport Rescue for further medical evaluation.  Both parties had different descriptions of the incident and no video footage in that area was able to locate what occurred.  The operator of V1 stated that he had no injuries and there was no damage that occurred to his vehicle.

Neither report mentions whether it was dark or light out when the woman was struck by the vehicle.

In the DMV reports generally, all pedestrian victims are essentially referred to as vehicles, such as, in this case, "V2".  It's obscene.  We live in a culture - including language -- that has been hijacked by vehicles.  Also, one wonders if the responding officer issued the driver a ticket for failure to yield the right of way to a pedestrian.  (HUDseen hopes to find out.)

Because this vehicle incident involving a pedestrian occurred in December, it should have been mentioned during HPD's report last month.  But because the newly formed Common Council did not hold a typical informal meeting, no department reports were presented in January.  Last night, during HPD's portion of Council President Margaret Morris's newly formed Safety Committee, Police Chief Mishanda Franklin gave her HPD report to the council, first saying, "I'm going to go over just the report for December." (Why she wouldn't give the report for both December and January is truly bizarre. Will she ever give January's report?)  Franklin's report last night lasted all of 48 seconds, much of it taken up by recounting an incident during Winter Walk that Captain Miller had informed the council of -- in the exact same details -- two months ago during his HPD report in December a few days following Winter Walk when he was filling in for Franklin one last time until her next maternity leave.  (You can't make this stuff up!)

During her as-always brief HPD report to the Safety Committee (though she usually goes over one minute!), Chief Franklin failed to mention the December 18th incident involving a pedestrian in a crosswalk with the right of way who was felled to the asphalt of Park Place by a multi-ton vehicle, found screaming in the street by responding police officers, and sent to the hospital with, what I understand was, at the very least, a broken leg.  Did Mishanda forget about the incident?  Was she made aware of it?  Was she on maternity leave at the time?  Vicky Daskaloudi, no longer a council member, was not present last night to ask Chief Franklin why she failed to mention this incident.  Do you think that the four SAFETY COMMITTEE members (excluding Dewan Sarowar, of course) would have been interested in hearing about the December 18th incident involving a pedestrian?  Or are "accidents" involving vehicles and pedestrians out of their safety purview?    

One wonders if the victim had been killed by the turning vehicle if Franklin would still have failed to mention the incident to the council.  Hmmm....

In HPD's newly formatted and newly titled December "Monthly Accidents" report, there was no mention of the December 18th incident under the heading of Accident Involving Pedestrian.  That heading was nowhere to be found on the report, as if there hadn't been any incidents involving vehicles striking pedestrians in December.  Instead, the incident on December 18th that put a pedestrian in the hospital with a broken leg (and likely trauma) can only be found under the heading of "Accidents Pers Injury," which, at least as I understood, was reserved for vehicle-only collisions.  According to the report, HPD responded to 6 vehicle incidents (I hate the word accident) involving personal injury in December, but there is nothing indicating how many of them involved a pedestrian or pedestrians.  It is as if HPD no longer has any interest in revealing information about pedestrians being struck by vehicles at our intersections, on our sidewalks, in our parking lots, in our crosswalks and on our streets.  

But we now know that one of the six "Accidents Pers Injury" in December did involve a pedestrian.  A pedestrian who wasn't killed, thank goodness, and one who Chief Franklin had no interest in talking about.  Besides getting one's hands on the individual accident reports, how would we ever know whether the month's other 5 incidents involving personal injury involved pedestrians?  Such as the "accident" involving personal injury which occurred just two days later, on December 20th at 9 am, also ON PARK PLACE!  Was another pedestrian struck by a vehicle on Park Place just two days after one was hit on the 18th in the crosswalk at perhaps the most dangerous turn in our lovely truck route? It's difficult, if not impossible, to know, isn't it?  Maybe it was another V2 pedestrian who got run over and wound up in the hospital.  Maybe not.  Whatever!  Who cares!

"Safety Committee," my ass!  HPD doesn't give a rat's ass about any pedestrian's safety, including their parking enforcers.  

One of Mayor Joe Ferris' stated goals is to improve the safety of ten of the city's most dangerous intersections.  I didn't hear any mention of that during last night's meeting of the so-called SAFETY COMMITTEE.  That's because they were too busy talking about parking.  Following Mishanda's less-than-one-minute HPD "report," it was Captain David Miller's turn to give his parking report to the SAFETY COMMITTEE, calling it his "breakdown for parking."  I just looked at the video of the meeting.  Miller's parking breakdown to the new SAFETY COMMITTEE -- doing his best to convince everyone that things are going swimmingly with the kiosks, signs and meter pole removal delays -- lasted just over 3 minutes.  Then there was an additional several minutes of discussion, questions and responses related to parking.  All this, during last night's inaugural meeting of the SAFETY COMMITTEE of The Hudson Common Council.

Thank goodness that Margaret Morris's new SAFETY COMMITTEE is going to keep an eye on HPD and their new parking payment scheme to make sure it's a smashing success.  Thank goodness the four SAFETY COMMITTEE members (including Dewan Sarowar) don't have to concern themselves with any of the city's dangerous intersections or pedestrians getting run over in them!   Maybe someone else will concern themselves with such a trivial matter as pedestrian safety.  Or maybe not.