An Upper West Side resident who witnessed the motorcycle crash that ultimately killed sculptor and retired professor Thomas McAnulty told bystanders that the motorcycle driver tried to flee the scene and was detained by police.
"He wanted to run away. He said 'I don't know nothing. What happened?' They [the police] said, 'Don't move buddy," recalled the witness, addressing a videographer who later uploaded his crash scene video to Youtube.
The witness went on to suggest that she spoke to the driver herself. "I ask him, 'Where are you going?' He says, 'I want to get out.'
An NYPD spokesman declined to comment on the incident in more detail, confirming only that the motorcycle driver remained on the scene. An investigation into the crash is ongoing, and no charges have been filed against the driver at this time. The YouTube uploader did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Police responded to the intersection of Amsterdam Avenue and West 96th Street around 5:06 p.m. last Thursday, January 14th. According to a preliminary investigation, McAnulty was crossing south on Amsterdam Avenue in the crosswalk when he was struck by the driver of a Ducati motorcycle riding east on West 96th.
Amsterdam Avenue has a reputation for speeding—59% of drivers speed during off-peak hours, according to the DOT—and has been the site of many pedestrian deaths and injuries over the years. The road saw 513 traffic injuries—36 of which were severe—between 2009 and 2013, as well as two deaths. Four-year-old Ariel Russo was fatally struck by an unlicensed driver when his vehicle jumped the curb at Amsterdam Avenue and 97th Street in 2013.
When 61-year-old Jean Chambers was killed by a driver at West End Avenue and 95th Street in July 2014, neighbors called out an "epidemic" of pedestrian deaths on the UWS.
CB7 Transportation Committee co-chairs Dan Zweig and Andrew Albert have long opposed biker and pedestrian-friendly initiatives in their district, according to Streetsblog. In the fall of 2013, Zweig said he was opposed to a comprehensive traffic study along Amsterdam Avenue, denying—not for the first time—the validity of DOT data showing increased safety as the result of protected bike lanes.
According to the DOT, protected bike lanes reduced total injuries along Columbus Avenue between West 96th Street and West 77th Street by 20% in three years. Pedestrian injuries are down 22%.
“There is very heavy traffic [on Amsterdam] and it is a truck route,” Zweig told the Post in August. "We don't know if Amsterdam Avenue can accommodate a bike lane."
But some renovations geared towards improved pedestrian and cyclist safety may be on the horizon, pending a CB7 vote.
Last November, CB7 voted 6-3 in favor of a redesign plan for Amsterdam Avenue—one that would slash one of the thoroughfare's four traffic lanes, and incorporate a dedicated parking lane and buffered bike lane. A revision to the proposal was released by the DOT last week [PDF], and calls for two miles of protected bike lanes between 72nd Street and 110th Street by this spring.
CB7 did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the pending vote. The next full board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday February 2nd at Mount Sinai Roosevelt Hospital.
