How To Ensure Pedestrians Will Continue To Be Put In Harm's Way: Keep Quiet, Do Absolutely Nothing and Ignore The Situation!

On Saturday, December 20th, 2025, at approximately 9:15 am, no more than 40 hours after a city resident walking in a downtown crosswalk was struck violently by a turning vehicle, another person walking in a city pedestrian crosswalk was hit by a turning vehicle.  THE TWO COLLISIONS OCCURED IN THE SAME PEDESTRIAN CROSSWALK at the intersection of Park Place & Warren Street.  The two collisions occurred in the one pedestrian crosswalk of the two at the busy intersection that does not have a flashing pedestrian signal.   No mention of either incident has been made publicly by anyone from City Hall.

The first victim -- on the 18th of December -- suffered a badly broken leg requiring two surgeries.  From what I understand, she is suing the city for creating an unsafe pedestrian crossing at the south end of Park Place.  The driver of the vehicle that could easily have killed the victim (and certainly impacted her for life both mentally and physically), John Cartularo of Elizaville, age 46, was driving a Jeep Wrangler that was registered in his mother's name (she of Somers, NY!).  He is the same John Cartularo who got into some serious legal trouble a few years ago.  He seems like a really friendly fellow.

John Cartularo was not issued a traffic violation ticket by HPD after he ran into and over a city resident pedestrian in the crosswalk and broke her leg.  He also was not administered a breathalyzer test.

According to the Hudson Police Department's internal Case Report, on December 20th, at about 9:15 am, a pedestrian was hit by a turning vehicle while in the same crosswalk at the southern end of Park Place.  The victim was not injured, describing the incident to a police officer at the police station.  Here is what is written in the report:  Patrol responded to the lobby to speak with J. Foster who reports being hit by a motor vehicle in the area of Park Place and Warren Street.  Foster stated as he was crossing the crosswalk on Park Place and Warren Street that a silver Ford SUV with a loud exhaust "clipped" his heel.  Foster stated he was not injured but that it was a close call.  Foster was unable to provide a license plate number or any other information on the vehicle.

The publicly available report names the victim as Jason Foster.  The street address for Jason Foster is redacted, though it does show that he is a resident of Hudson, NY.  Chances are very good that this Jason Foster is the same Jason Foster who is the 3rd ward's newest council member and chair of the so-called Code & Infrastructure Committee.  (The crosswalk in question is in the third ward!)  That Jason Foster has never mentioned the incident in the crosswalk at the end of Park Place that took place on the 20th, not at any council or committee meeting in the past 4 months.  And our Police Chief, Mishanda Franklin, hasn't mentioned either of the incidents involving pedestrians being hit by turning vehicles in that crosswalk (or any others we may not know about) in the past four months.  No mention has been made of the two incidents involving pedestrians being struck by turning vehicles that occurred within 40 hours of one another in the same fucking downtown pedestrian crosswalk.  Mums the word!  

Why the hell would our Police Chief bother mentioning anything about the two incidents that are categorized as "involving personal injury" in HPD's January Incidents Report ?  (There were six such incidents that month, two involving pedestrians... IN THE SAME CROSSWALK!) What does Chief Franklin care if another pedestrian or five get hit by a multi-ton vehicle (or a semi-trailer) while in a crosswalk, perhaps even in the same crosswalk over and over again?  What does she care if (and when) someone is finally run over and killed by a turning vehicle at Park & Warren (or anywhere else)?  What does she care if none of the city's pedestrian crosswalks are SAFE or not?  Why would Chief Franklin want the public to know what is going in our city and how safe or unsafe we all are?

And do you think that Henry Haddad, the chair of the so-called SAFETY Committee that Chief Franklin is also supposedly a part of, cares that Chief Franklin isn't interested in talking about pedestrians getting hit by turning vehicles in the same dangerous crosswalk (or, apparently, in any crosswalk)?  Why would Henry care?  Why the hell would he want to know about an obviously dangerous pedestrian crosswalk and intersection at a turn in the truck route?  Because Henry has got to figure out a way to get residential parking permit systems implemented on Warren Street and in the neighborhood surrounding the Pocketbook Hotel & Business Complex.  And he's going to need assistance from Mishanda Franklin to get it done!  At least that's what Henry says he and his SAFETY Committee have been doing for the past two months.  And getting nowhere, by the way!  

Margaret Morris's new so-called SAFETY Committee spends most of its time blabbering on and on about PARKING issues but never about PEDESTRIAN SAFETY issues.  Is that what she had in mind when she created her SAFETY Committee, hoping to solve the city's endless parking woes?  Does Margaret Morris care that there is clearly something dangerously wrong with a busy pedestrian crosswalk in the heart of downtown Hudson at a turn in the truck route?  Are you f'ng kidding me?  Is Margaret Morris even aware that these two incidents involving pedestrians occurred WITHIN 40 HOURS OF ONE ANOTHER IN THE SAME CROSSWALK?  If she is, she certainly doesn't seem bothered one bit by them, just as the members of her ineffective SAFETY Committee are completely unconcerned by them.  And if the victim of the turning vehicle on December 18th had been killed instead of having her leg badly broken and living the rest of her life with PTSD?  And if, just 40 hours later at the same intersection in the same pedestrian crosswalk, "Jason Foster" had been maimed for life instead of just "clipped" on the ankle by a turning vehicle?   Would Margaret Morris still allow her SAFETY Committee to talk endlessly about parking matters that have nothing to do with SAFETY quality of life issues?  Parked cars don't kill people.  Moving and, especially, turning vehicles often do, even at busy intersections in crosswalks with no flashing pedestrians signals available to pedestrians trying to cross the street, even possibly with children in tow!  Don't bother telling Margaret Morris that, though! She's got driving safety issues of her own to come to terms with!  (No driver can roll over a 5-inch curb in a parking lot AND CONTINUE TO MOVE FORWARD without keeping their foot on the gas pedal!)

Welcome to Hudson, where nothing makes much sense and nothing ever gets accomplished.  And keeping quiet about pedestrians being run into and over by vehicles (and doing nothing to prevent it) is City Hall's latest modus operandi.  It's all beyond creepy.  It's frightening, too, just as frightening as that crosswalk at the end of Park Place often is.  One frightens you to death, the other just might kill you in an instant.