BY KEVIN DUGGAN
They’re looking to tip the
scales in the city’s favor!
The city wants to install automatic
weight monitors along
the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway
to help highway patrol
catch truckers hauling overweight
loads down the aging interstate,
most of whom get away
with their outlaw behavior due
to the cops’ low-tech surveillance
equipment — their eyeballs,
according to the city’s
chief highway cop.
“We are touching just the
tip of it,” said Inspector Steven
D’Ulisse, commanding offi cer
of the NYPD Highway District
at a City Hall hearing about the
BQE.
Police have issued 97 weightrelated
summonses for trucks
and have taken 23 of those vehicles
out of service along the
BQE since Mayor Bill de Blasio
issued an executive order for
the Boys in Blue to up enforcement
of the heavy rigs along the
roadway on Feb. 3.
But offi cers are forced to rely
largely on their intuition to pick
out offenders — essentially pulling
NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County Launches Bariatric
Weight Loss Center To Improve Care for Obese Patients
COURIER L 18 IFE, MARCH 6-12, 2020
over drivers they suspect
may be overweight, and then
measuring their loads using
mobile scales — and offi cials at
the Department of Transportation
want to partner with their
state counterparts to install automatic
sensors along the aging
roadway, which would help
capture offenders who slip past
highway patrol, according to offi
cials.
The new sensors — known
as weigh-in-motion or WIM —
are capable of automatically
detecting an overweight load,
while also capturing license
plates and US Department of
Transportation registration
numbers, which are fed in near
real-time to police, much like
speed and red light cameras,
according to D’Ulisse.
“That’s key to get every single
truck that’s overweight automatically,
almost like a red
light summons or a speed camera
summons,” he said.
De Blasio’s directive to increase
truck enforcement followed
the release of a report by
an expert panel he convened to
study the roadway, which found
that the crumbling triple cantilever
section between Atlantic
Avenue and Sands Street could
become unsafe to travel on
within the next fi ve years.
The panel also recommended
reducing the highway’s
lanes from three in each
direction to two, but de Blasio
has so far been skeptical of that
proposal.
The panel found that out of
the 15,000 trucks that traverse
freeway every day, a small fraction
of overweight freight carriers
were causing disproportionate
damage to the structure.
Trucks are limited to a maximum
of 80,000 pounds, or 40
tons, along the BQE, but some
sensors the panel used while
studying the roadway found
that some trucks were loading
as much as 170,000 pounds!
Trucks can also violate
the law if they carry less than
80,000 pounds on smaller vehicle,
The city wants to stop overweight trucks going on the BQE by installing
automatic sensors along the highway. Photo by Meg Capone
which results in more pressure
being applied to the road
surface, D’Ulisse noted.
The city agency installed
the fi rst such WIM technology
on the Alexander Hamilton
Bridge between the Bronx and
Manhattan in 2014, and two
more in Queens in 2016, according
to US Department of Transportation
documents, but the
city’s DOT Commissioner Polly
Trottenberg is eager to implement
them on the BQE and beyond.
“The Police Department is
not going to be every place all
the time and increasingly we’re
going to be want to get trucks
with automated enforcement
that will operate in key parts of
the city 24/7,” Trottenberg said
at the hearing. “It’s not widely
deployed around the world yet,
but I think it is in place where
New York is likely to want to be
a leader.”
Before the offi cials can start
installing the sensors, the city
will need approval from the
state’s Department of Transportation,
whose spokesperson
did not immediately respond to
a request for comment.
SCALES OF JUSTICE
City weighs automatic truck enforcement on BQE
NYC Health + Hospitals/
Kings County has created
an integrated, team focused
approach to weight loss that
includes surgical, medical,
nutritional, psychiatric, and
exercise components. The
medical and family physicians
at NYC Health + Hospitals/
Kings County actively
identify patients who would
benefit from surgical intervention
for weight loss. Together,
surgery and medicine
work to optimize a patient’s
health and medical conditions
in preparation for weight loss
surgery. Patients are given
nutritional education from
an experienced bariatric nutritionist,
supervised physical
education and exercise
classes, and continued medical
oversight throughout their
entire weight loss journey.
Individuals with a body
mass index (BMI) of 35 or
greater are good candidates
for Bariatric Weight Loss
Surgery. Morbid obesity is a
significant national health issue.
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC)
reports that 64 percent of all
U.S. adults are overweight or
obese. Obesity is correlated
to the development of other
critical diseases such as high
blood pressure, diabetes and
heart disease.
NYC Health + Hospitals/
Kings County offers two types
of Bariatric Surgery. Sleeve
Gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y
Bypass. Both surgeries are
performed laparoscopically,
with small incisions for faster
healing. Bariatric surgery
works by reducing the amount
of food that fits in the stomach
and changing the way the patient
absorbs food.
It takes one to three hours
to perform Bariatric Surgery.
Patients will stay in the hospital
the night after surgery
and possibly be released in
one or two days after the procedure.
Additionally, patients
are placed on a unique diet for
a few weeks in order to heal
safely. Most patients are back
to normal activities within
two to four weeks after surgery.
After surgery, patients
will visit the Weight Loss Center
to consult with their physician
and receive nutrition
education from a registered
dietitian and prepare for lifelong
health habits to support
weight loss after operation.
“We’re incredibly excited
to introduce bariatric surgery
because of the impending impact
to the demographic we
serve,” said Nicholas Morin,
D.O., Director of Bariatric Surgery
at NYC Health + Hospitals/
Kings County. “The rates
of diabetes and hypertension
are high in Central Brooklyn,
and surgical weight loss can
really combat these issues.
The Bariatric program will
be an excellent resource for
patients that are ready to take
bold steps toward improving
their health.”
For more information
about Bariatric Surgery at
NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings
County, please email Kingscountyweightloss@
nychhc.
org or call 718-245-3325.
About NYC Health + Hospitals/
Kings County
NYC Health + Hospitals/
Kings County is a 624-bed acute
care teaching hospital located in
Central Brooklyn. Among our
highly specialized programs
are a Level I Trauma Center, Pediatric
Emergency Room, Level
3 Perinatal Center, Heart Health
Center, Stroke Center, Sickle Cell
Program, Behavioral Health
Center, and Diabetes Education
Center of Excellence. Many of
our programs have received
national recognition, including
our cardiac, stroke and diabetes
services. The hospital offers a
broad array of primary and specialty
care, including practices
in neuroscience, orthopedics,
urology and cardiology. Annually,
our ambulatory care clinics
see well over 500,000 visits, and
more than 150,000 visits in the
Behavioral Health outpatient
program, in addition to close
to 23,000 inpatient discharges.
NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings
County has played a major role
in providing health care to vulnerable
populations in Brooklyn
since 1831, and is part of NYC
Health + Hospitals, the largest
public health care system in the
nation. For more information
visit, nychealthandhospitals.
org/kingscounty.
HE A LTH C ARE PROF I L E – ADV ERT I S EMENT