A 33-year-old Queens motorcyclist died in a brutal crash in Canarsie Monday night, according to authorities.
Andrew Vasapoli smashed into the rear of a Hyundai Elantra on Flatlands Avenue at 8 p.m. on June 24, colliding with the sedan as the driver attempted to make a U turn on Flatlands Avenue near E. 93rd Street, cops said.
The collision sent Vasapoli flying from the saddle of his 2010 Kawasaki, and paramedics rushed the Queens man to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The driver remained on the scene following the collision and was not arrested, according to police, who noted an investigation by the department’s Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad remains ongoing.
Readers shared their thoughts online:
When will the carnage end? It’s long past time to ban the wheel.
Local from Here
How many more will have to die before NYC.GOV stops encouraging two wheels on streets, perhaps never and they’ll just factor it into the matrix of more people coming than going. It’s all math to them, more people, more money. Underground, above-ground, all-over-the-ground, even smashed into the ground, no matter to them. Time for a new order where the people decide instead of GOV deciding for them.
Ban 2 wheeled from street
God d— drivers, they are too plucking incompetent and careless. Charge the driver with manslaughter. Dimitri S from Coney Island
We need a nanny state. Life is too unsafeSpeedy Gonzalez
Lane blame
City officials ignored a Dyker Heights community board’s rejection of a network of bike lanes proposed for the area, and have decided to implement the paths over the civic group’s objections.
“It was surprising to learn in statements made to the press that DOT opted to proceed with bicycle lanes on Ridge Boulevard,” said Doris Cruz, the chair of Community Board 10, in a statement on June 20. Ridge Boulevard is one of four bike lanes in Dyker Heights that DOT will paint despite the board’s objections.
During a community board meeting on Monday, June 17, members in Community Board 10 asked to investigate traffic safety along 84th and 85th streets between 7th and 14th avenues before the city installed a bike lane. The board also rejected a lane on Bay Ridge Avenue between Shore Road and 14th Avenue, arguing that the two-mile stretch lacks left-turn signals and contains a steep incline.
But on Wednesday, the transit agency announced its plans to paint lanes on all three streets without further study — as well as on five other roadways that the board approved — in the early fall. None of these lanes would erase existing parking space, and only one would be protected, according to the DOT.
Readers were divided online:
More bike lanes = safer streets. Keep ‘em coming, please!
Henry Ford from Bay Ridge
Of greater import: Aiden’s discovered the thesaurus! And we have a candidate for replacing honcho. Bigwig. Have you considered Overlords? Just a thought. K from ArKady
A message to Mayor de Blasio community board’s are just a waste of taxpayers money, please suspend all of them…..
Jim from Greenpoint
Congratulations – you are all subjects, not citizens – now take these bike racks and tell us we are right.
Rufus Leaking from BH
The bike lanes are not a waste of money because thousands of Brooklynites depend on bike lanes and bicycling to get to their jobs every day and do their household errands. Without bike lanes they are being injured by reckless drivers.
Susan Rosenfeld from
Sheepshead Bay
As usual, the de Blasio regime cares only for special interest groups like the pedal pushers rather than sidewalkers and community residents. But in the long run ,careless bikers will continue to die in higher numbers and erecting more bike paths will not change that. Pedal safe and die less.James Maggio
The clueless, oblivious car-hating cabal at the DoT loathes what car drivers and outer Borough residents think or need. Their main priority is to make driving and parking as difficult and costly as possible, and to ensure that the white-biker-bros’ interest is provided for.
Enough empty bike lanes
from Dyker
I guess some only like elitism only when it suits their needs. If anyone tries to claim that the community really wanted those bike lanes, I would like to see proof, otherwise my statement on elitism holds by default. I highly doubt that a group of bike zealots from a particular group represent a majority especially when barely one percent of the city’s commuters actually ride bicycles according a to a recent study in the US Census Bureau. Then again, as long as they can get what they want, they will believe that the end justifies the means. Of course, they probably took a page out of Marty Markowitz, the previous Brooklyn borough president, who once threatened to purge community boards if they didn’t agree with the Atlantic Yards, which is now called Pacific Park, as well as then-state governor George Pataki where you can always get what you want just by sidestepping everything and everyone despite any major opposition.
Tal Barzilai from Pleasantville
Alzheimer’s
Awareness!
June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month. The numbers are staggering — 5.8 million Americans have Alzheimer’s and by 2050, that number could rise as high as 14 million. The numbers don’t tell the whole story. Alzheimer’s destroys precious memories and shortens the time we might have spent with loved ones.
My grandmother died from Alzheimer’s when I was 11 years old. One of my final memories of her is visiting her in a nursing home; she didn’t remember my name. I’m sure she would have loved to watch me grow into adulthood, and I know she would have added so much joy to my life. I grieve for the relationship we lost. That’s why I decided to honor her memory by working with the Alzheimer’s Association, New York City Chapter as an Alzheimer’s advocate.
I am pleased that my member of Congress, Nydia Velazquez, is a supporter of Alzheimer’s issues. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend her town hall meeting, where she spoke about her commitment to supporting all who are affected by it. If you have lost someone to Alzheimer’s, please join me in sharing your story with your legislators. Everyone needs to understand that there are real people behind the statistics. We need the support of our elected officials in order to end this horrible disease.
Vanessa Hannay from
Brooklyn
Bay businesses are suffering
An old-fashioned video rental store; a pizzeria; a family clothing store; a bar; a podiatrist’s office; a liquor store — what do all of these have in common?
Once thriving businesses on and around Avenue U in Sheepshead Bay, they have all been closed for months — even years —leaving their original locations shuttered and abandoned, often with the original signage still out front.
Is, as Mayor de Blasio has claimed, New York City’s economy “booming?”
Maybe in some places, but not here.
Businesses close their doors and nothing replaces them; commercial properties remain vacant for long amounts of time. How long, I wonder, will the site of the just-closed Payless on Nostrand Avenue and Avenue Y go without a tenant, damaging the economic health of the neighborhood even further?
It’s not as though the solidly middle-class Sheepshead Bay/Marine Park area can’t support different types of businesses. So what’s happening? Are commercial real estate prices so high, even in the farthest reaches of Brooklyn, that business owners are investing elsewhere? Are the landlords themselves, instead of seeking renters, using their abandoned properties as tax write-offs? Or is this merely the fault of retail giants like Amazon, which make anything and everything available online.
Whole stretches of forgotten storefronts, resulting in ghost town economics at its worst. All that’s missing are the tumbleweeds. What a shame.
Stuart R. BrynienSheepshead Bay
