Accidents on Staten Island Highlight how Dangerous the City Has Become

Traffic incidents

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A series of traffic mishaps on Staten Island call attention to how dangerous driving, walking, and bicycling in New York has become in less than one year. There seems to be less room to drive around in Staten Island and everywhere else in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. For example, a severe motor vehicle crash during the Monday morning commute on the West Shore Expressway injured one individual, according to SILIVE.com. Also, according to SILIVE.com, a crash during the evening commute on the State Island Expressway caused massive backups and gridlock in the aftermath.

A motor vehicle crash during the morning and evening commutes should come as no surprise to motorists in New York City. The auto accident that happened during the morning commute, which left one person injured, happened around 6:00 a.m. The FDNY said that personnel responded to a crash scene located at Arthur Kill Road and Huguenot Avenue exit on the West Shore Expressway. One person sustained serious injuries in that crash. The first responders shut down several lanes of traffic so they could tend to the injured and clear debris. The crash not only left a person in the hospital with injuries, but the crash also backed up traffic on the northbound and southbound sides of the road.

Later that day, during the evening commute, a crash occurred during heavy rain that essentially brought traffic to a virtual standstill. The crash reportedly happened in the outbound lanes headed to New Jersey. The accident forced traffic to start backing up at the Slosson Avenue exit. There was no word about injuries suffered in that crash.,

Preliminary statistics from NYPD’s TrafficState program shows that fatalities in auto crashes and pedestrian accidents rose 200 percent since 2018. Also, accidents that cause injuries have increased by 21 percent on Staten Island. Across New York City, fatalities have risen by 31 percent from 2018.

Unsurprisingly, driver inattention is the primary cause of about half of all accidents involving pedestrians in Staten Island in 2019 to this point.