A truck driver struck and
killed a 29-year-old cyclist at a
Williamsburg intersection Monday,
according to authorities.
The 70 year-old man was
heading east along Boerum
Street from behind the wheel
of a cement truck at 12:19 p.m.,
when he struck the biker as she
crossed the street heading north
on Bushwick Avenue, cops said.
Paramedics pronounced the
woman dead at the scene, according
to police.
Cops have not cuffed the
driver, who remained on the
scene following the collision,
according to the department
spokeswoman, who noted they
are withholding the victim’s
name pending family notification.
The woman is the 15th city
cyclist killed by motorists this
year, compared to 10 in all of
2018, with two slain just last
week.
The war between bikers and
motorists played out online:
These cyclists come right up on
you full speed on the sidewalk with
no warning..if you are talking and
wave your arm outward forget it..
no warning, no whistle no bell just
zooooms by... Louis Franqui
from Red Hook
I get that, Louise. Sometimes
joggers scare me too, coming from
behind at full speed. Once, I was
hit in the arm by a purse, and another
time, a stroller ran over my
foot. In both cases it left a bruise.
I just consider myself lucky that
it wasn’t a truck, I guess. And,
NYPD just announced that murder
rates continue to drop. Good
thing that they don’t take vehicular
homicide into consideration,
or it wouldn’t look so pretty.
Peter from Dyker Heights
Nobody asking what happened
with millions of dollars spent on
“Zero Tolerance”, 25 mile speed
limit, cameras etc? It was obvious
from the beginning, that won’t decrease
accident, just another smart
way to tax nyc people.
Guy from NYC
Its f**ked up what happened but
this is the end result of the city that
doesn’t punish motorists when they
kill. They keep doing it over and
over with no consequences.
Local from Here
It’s a tragedy. A terrible terrible
accident. NYC is a major metropolis
and the amount of bicycles on the
streets mixing with traffic is a sure
fire way to see an increase in collisions.
I think if mass transit was
Significantly improved more of both
motorists and cyclists would opt in.
The transit system in NYC is a disaster
and things like todays incident is
inevitable. Peggy from Brooklyn
It’s a very sad situation. No one
deserves to go this way!! As a crossing
guard years ago I experienced
a few incidents with bicyclists!
“Some” are WRECKLESS. They
stick the middle finger @ you, very
disrespectful. They don’t follow traffic
regulations. They pass lights,
they damage parked cars. I don’t
wish anything on anyone God bless
us all!! God bless the young ladies
soul and my deepest condolences to
the family!! What else can the Mayor
do, he done put freaken citi bikes
in every corner of the streets. Then
took away a lot of parking spots. I believe
law enforcement need to take
action the same way they ticket cars,
they should ticket bicyclists as well.
#JustSaying. No offense to no one.
A driver from Williamsburg
This year’s pool day was wet —
and wild!
Parks Department staff shut
down Commodore Barry Pool on
Thursday, after cops tackled and
cuffed a teen involved in a scuffle
that occurred on the opening day
for city pools.
The incident occurred as dozens
of exasperated Brooklynites lined
N. Elliott Place in the sizzling heat
waiting for the Clinton Hill pool to
reopen following a mid-day break
at around 4:20 p.m. — about 20 minutes
after the pool was scheduled to
open.
The 16-year-old boy and his
friend had been arguing, and at
one point a NYC Parks worker tried
COURIER L 24 IFE, JULY 5–11, 2019 M BR B G
to break up the fight, grabbing the
teen, according one witness.
“Then the supervisor came out,
he was hot-headed and started
jumping on him like he was a
grown-ass man his age,” said
Daequa Turner, a friend of the
cuffed teen.
The teen tried walk away from
the scuffle just as several squad
cars rolled up to the pool, and
about a dozen cops tackled and
then surrounded the teen, according
to witnesses, who noted one female
officer was spotted yanking
on the kid’s hair.
“She pulled his hair and everything.
She was going in,” said Sandra
Rodriguez.
Readers discussed alternatives
to violence online:
It’s shameful on both sides. The
youth by all accounts was in a one
on one heated verbal altercation
with his friend and the situation escalated
in a public venue. The Pool
staff gets involved,the situation further
escalates. The police are summoned
to deescalate the situation...
further escalation erupts. No arrest...
Mediation
LT from Fort Green-Clinton
Hill
Seriously... Do the police know
how to react in *any* way other than
with aggression? Teens being hormonal
idiots, doing what teens do. It’s
not acceptable behavior. And it should
be corrected. This was not how you do
that. This made the situation worse. I
saw many fights break out (and many
more get close to it) in my high school.
Armed police, never mind a dozen or
more, were ever needed. Ever. It was
handled by ONE man deescalating
the situation. In a rare instance, two
men were required. No aggressive
tackling. No swarming of a dozen officers
with their hand on their weapons.
(Not to mention, this kid is probably
going to be charged with assaulting
an officer — even though, all he saw
and reacted to was probably a random
man charging at him, not an officer)
Tyler from PPS
That could have been handled so
much better. I think of how lucky we
were as teenagers to not be under police
watch. A lot of stupid —— that
didnt amount to anything would have
ruined our lives. Joe
from Prospect Heights
One of the best-kept secrets in
Brooklyn operates out of a tiny office
in an apartment building just
off Brooklyn College’s Flatbush Avenuer
campus, and is called BLL
— Brooklyn Lifelong Learning. A
continuing education program for
seniors — some students are well
into their 80s —it offers year-round
classes, summer included, on everything
from fiction to film, politics
to performing, and math to money
management. Hundreds of folks,
most of them retirees, attend classes
every week; I had the pleasure of attending
the short story class this
past year, as well as the actors’ workshop,
which, as usual, concluded in
May with a three-hour showcase of
scenes, monologues, and poetry. Every
seat was filled, and we were — no
surprise here — a hit.
The problem: although BLL has
been around for decades, the college’s
commitment to it has all but
disappeared. Rooms that used to
be available aren’t any longer; time
slots that used to be set aside for BLL
classes have been declared off-limits.
Recliaming even a modicum of
the respect that BLL received from
the school’s past administration has
been a struggle.
The question is, why? Certainly,
the matriculating students at BC
take priority. But what about the senior
citizens of the community who
want to expand their horizons and
learn something new? What about
all the folks who simply want to get
out and socialize? What about them?
For months now, BLL has been
alerting its members to the possibility
that the program might not survive.
That it will —a summer schedule
has already been released , and a
fall brochure will soon be on its way
— is soley because BLL’s administration,
and its loyal membership, have
worked so hard to make it happen.
Ultimately, however, Brooklyn
Lifelong Learning is still hanging
on by the proverbial thread — and
at some point in the not-too-distant
future, Brooklyn College may decide
to sever that thread once and for all.
And what a loss that would be to
the school, to the community, and —
most importantly —to the hundreds
of folks who enjoy the classes that
BLL so generously offers.
Stuart R. Brynien
from Sheepshead Bay