A recent pedestrian fatality has sparked a new push for more street lights and signage on Brighton Beach Avenue, this paper has learned.
Believing that a lack of signage along Brighton Beach between Brighton 12th and Brighton 15th streets played a role in the death of 30-year-old Natia Gugegiani on May 25, attorney Igor Oberman is again taking up the struggle to force the city’s Department of Transportation to add more traffic controls on the heavily traveled thoroughfare.
“Since 2007, I have been contacting local politicians in order to have some type of traffic control device installed on Brighton Beach Avenue between Brighton 12th and Brighton 15th streets,” Oberman said in a letter sent to this paper. “This is the only portion of Brighton Beach Avenue without any kind of traffic controls.”
“I had a feeling that only a tragedy like this would lead to some changes, because the Department of Transportation (DOT), like the Department of Buildings, only seems to respond when fatalities occur,” he said. “Without lights on this stretch of Brighton Beach Avenue, all we’re left with is a body count until changes are made.”
Officials said that motorist Ronald Suriano ran into Gugegiani with his 2002 Mercedes Benz as she tried to cross the corner of Brighton Beach Avenue and Brighton 15th Street at 4:45 p.m. on May 25.
Responding paramedics found Gugegiani bleeding from the head. They rushed her to Coney Island Hospital, where she died of her injuries.
Investigators allegedly determined that Suriano was driving recklessly and at a high rate of speed when he hit the pedestrian. He was also allegedly intoxicated, and had a small amount of cocaine on his person, officials said.
His driver’s license was also revoked, officials said.
Cops charged him with criminal possession of a controlled substance. Other charges were pending as this paper went to press.
Oberman said that last year he recruited the help of area elected officials to encourage the DOT to conduct a study to see if street lights are needed.
That stretch of Brighton Beach Avenue is the only major thoroughfare he knows of that has no signage at all, he said.
“It’s insane,” he said. “There’s no part of Kings Highway or Avenue U where there are no lights at all.”
Although Suriano’s allegedly reckless driving might have been the major factor of last month’s fatality, Oberman believes that the lack of street signs played a role.
“It definitely contributed to the accident,” he said.
Oberman said that he was successful in getting the Borough President’s office to request a traffic study for Brighton Beach Avenue last year.
The DOT completed a new survey in December 2007.
“Based upon our evaluation of the data collected, it is our judgment that additional controls are not recommended at this time,” wrote DOT Borough Commissioner Joseph Palmieri in a recent correspondence.
But a spokesperson for the DOT said that, as policy, engineers will again review the corner of Brighton Beach Avenue and Brighton 15th Street since a fatality had taken place there.
“But [a new study] won’t necessarily lead to a change, because we have to follow federal standards,” the spokesman said.
During the new inspection, engineers will determine if new housing, pedestrian and vehicular traffic will demand new signage and street lights.
“Those are the type of things we look at,” the spokesman said.
City Councilmember Michael Nelson is also requesting a new evaluation of Brighton Beach Avenue.
“This is not a new issue, but we’re asking them to reinvestigate because this is such a heavily congested area, especially during the summer months,” Nelson said. “[Brighton Beach Avenue] has claimed its share of accidents and has seen some new improvements, but evidently they haven’t been enough.”
Nelson said that two weeks ago Nelson has written a letter to the DOT asking to meet with their engineers to “discuss plans and basic safeguards” for that stretch of Brighton Beach Avenue.
The DOT had not responded to his request as this paper went to press.
