Concerned about the abundance of accidents at one Bay Ridge corner, a local volunteer group is calling on the city to make improvements there.
Community Board 10 voted at its October meeting, which was held at the Knights of Columbus, 13th Avenue and 86th Street, to write a letter to the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) requesting a traffic study at the corner of Bay Ridge Parkway and Seventh Avenue, which has been a hot spot for accidents going back years.
As of September 19th, there had been 14 accidents at the intersection, four with injuries, so far in 2009. In 2008, there were 28 accidents at the intersection, 11 of which involved injuries. In 2007, there were 14 accidents, including four with injuries. There were 14 accidents in both 2005 and 2006, and 29 in 2004.
The proximity of the entrance to the Gowanus Expressway leading toward the Verrazano Narrows Bridge may be an issue in the frequency of accidents at the location, said Brian Kieran, chairperson of the board’s Traffic & Transportation Committee, who told board members that the committee specifically wanted DOT to “evaluate whether the placement of a dedicated turning signal for both westbound and eastbound 75th Street traffic, seeking to turn and head toward the Gowanus Expressway entrance, would improve pedestrian/vehicle safety there.
“The study,” Kieran added, “should encompass peak time traffic patterns and consider phasing the light sequence to maximize the time a pedestrian has to get across Seventh Avenue without traffic crossing the walkway.”
The issue had been brought to the committee by Mary Ann Walsh, the board’s vice chairperson, whose daughter-in-law was injured in an accident there earlier this year.
Walsh explained in an interview with this paper that her daughter-in-law had been struck by a turning SUV “while crossing westerly across Seventh Avenue” on the south side of Bay Ridge Parkway. The SUV — which was heading toward the Gowanus to go to Staten Island — had run over her ankle, Walsh went on, crushing it and breaking it on one side. As a result, her daughter-in-law has undergone two surgeries, and is in the midst of 18 months of physical therapy.
Bad as it was, the accident could have been far more devastating, Walsh added. “She had her four-year-old and her six-year-old with her,” Walsh said, adding, “Thankfully, there were already on the sidewalk.”
Walsh said that, since her daughter-in-law’s accident, she had stood at the corner to observe traffic there. “It’s horrible, particularly when you go east on 75th Street,” she opined. “I’m amazed there hasn’t been a fatality.”
