Brooklyn Boro

Agency Asks: What Would Make Atlantic and Flatbush Safer?

DOT Holds Hearing Seeking Input on Crash-Prone Downtown B’klyn Intersection

August 2, 2016 By James Harney Brooklyn Daily Eagle
In July 2015, a cyclist died and several other people were injured in a horrific crash involving three vehicles on Fourth Avenue between Atlantic and Flatbush avenues. The cyclist’s mangled bicycle was in pieces, with part of the front of the bike stuck in the SUV’s wheel. Eagle file photo by Andy Katz
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Call it a place where an accident doesn’t wait to happen.

City Department of Transportation (DOT) officials will host a public workshop Wednesday at the YWCA at 30 Third Ave., to hear what local residents think would cut down on crashes at Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, one of the busiest — and most treacherous — crossings in the borough.

The crossing where the Atlantic Terminal mall and Barclays Center arena meet is so crash-prone that 150 vehicle crashes were reported there in the first six months of 2015.

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In fact, one of the deadliest occurred after that period — a horrific wreck the Brooklyn Eagle reported on in July 2015, in which a cyclist was killed and six other people were injured in a Monday morning crash involving the bicycle and three vehicles on Fourth Avenue between Atlantic and Flatbush.

According to police and witnesses, the cyclist was heading south on Flatbush Avenue at about 7:15 a.m. when a northbound SUV crossed into his lane and struck him near Atlantic.

The SUV then dragged the cyclist before hitting a car, according to a food cart vendor who was working nearby.

The mangled Mitsubishi careened onto a curb, coming to rest outside a nearby store, while the SUV kept going before finally coming to rest on the north side of the intersection of Flatbush and Fourth avenues, witnesses and police said.

In the grim aftermath of the accident, a piece of the bicycle’s frame was seen sticking out of one of the SUV’s front tires.

The cyclist was lying in the middle of the intersection of Flatbush and Fourth avenues when EMS arrived and pronounced him dead at the scene, officials said. He was later identified as Alejandro Moran-Marin, of Sunset Park.  

An NYPD spokesperson said that six people — three vehicle operators and three passengers — were transported in stable condition to New York Methodist Hospital in Park Slope.

The SUV driver who reportedly caused the mayhem was later identified as Claudio Rodriguez, 37. An unconfirmed report at the time said that Rodriguez “may have suffered a seizure” just before the accident.

Following that highly publicized wreck, Transportation Alternatives’ Brooklyn Activist Committee issued calls to transform Atlantic Avenue, east and west of Flatbush, into a ”Complete Street” with protected bike lanes, traffic-calming measures and pedestrian safety improvements.

And Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Paul Steely White said, “Every day I open the paper to another story of a New Yorker killed crossing the street. Every 30 hours in our city, another pedestrian’s life is lost.”

White added, “Arterial roadways re-engineered with new bike lanes and public plazas, the speeding epidemic halted by a safer speed limit and automated enforcement cameras — these are all rungs on the ladder to Vision Zero, a city where no one is killed or injured in traffic.”

According to the Fifth Avenue Committee, tonight’s workshop is intended to “identify street safety concerns, discuss potential street design solutions, gather community input and brainstorm safety improvements.”

A DOT spokeswoman said the meeting would also include a discussion of the nearby Times Plaza, the triangle-shaped public plaza where Atlantic, Flatbush and Fourth avenues converge. Officials will discuss “how its design fits into a larger network of safety improvements,” the spokeswoman said.

The public workshop at the YWCA is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. DOT officials will make an opening presentation at 6 p.m., and the workshop will begin at 6:30.

 


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