I just got a text message from one of our neighbors who lives on 6th Avenue. Apparently, we can stop waiting. I am told there was a "possible fatality crash" on 6th Avenue, and it involved a motorcycle.
If it was only a motorcycle, then 1) I doubt the driver was using a mobile phone, and 2) there was presumably no other vehicle involved (if the person who sent me the text message was correct that this event only involved one vehicle, and it was a motorcycle).
It's not wet out this morning, and the only things that come to mind to account for this event are excessive speed or an oil patch.
I'm up and down 6th Avenue often enough. It's very uncommon I see a BP cruiser there, and when I do, they're almost always sitting between sections of median (not driving/cruising on 6th Avenue).
The "Don't Even Think About Speeding" signs are not posted in the Village any more. I don't know where they are. Either they're stored somewhere, or they've been discarded.
If we are a real municipality, and worthy of the designation, then we simply must do better than we have been. We need those signs back, and we need the enforcement and cruising to show we mean it.
6th Avenue has always been our most precarious street. It has always accounted for almost all of our speeding tickets. It's a problem street, and it's not under our control.
What is under our control, and always has been, is enforcement. We are endangering other people and ourselves by ignoring our biggest traffic problem.
If we can't man ourselves up, and rise to this occasion, then I agree with Bryan Cooper: we should close up shop as an independent municipality, and let ourselves be controlled by someone who cares. Most likely, that would be CNM or the county. Either one would be better than what we're doing.
Wow, that must be what I saw when I went out to do an errand this morning around 11 a.m. It was up on the corner of 121 and 6th.
ReplyDeleteAs recently as this week, I have been given the horn by a very large truck that was speeding by when I was trying to roll my trash can up to the street. I had to run to behind my large Oak tree because if they swerved the tree would stop it from hitting me (hopefully). It's been pretty terrible lately.
I have a clarification. The person who wrote to me initially to say that only a motorcycle was involved now says there was another vehicle crossing 6th, going west, and "T-boned the motorcycle, which must have been doing at least 60 mph." Obviously, the "60 mph" is an impression, because our neighbor did not have a speed gun, but I have no doubt that he was right that the motorcycle was speeding. It's less clear why the crossing car did not see the motorcycle coming before crossing 6th.
ReplyDeleteAnother person who lived here, but no longer does (but still reads this blog), said I am "100% correct" about the "dramatically lower police presence and an increase in accidents and speeding."
We have a Commission that should be leaning on the manager, and we have a manager who has every reason to know what's going on on 6th Avenue. It's unimaginable how nothing has changed. Well, it now appears our inertia has contributed to getting someone killed. I wouldn't even venture a guess as to whether or not this will be wake-up call enough.
Now that they paved Griffing, it is like a drag strip. Cars no longer slow or move over for pedestrians. Instead they speed by with impunity or swerve at you. There will be an issue on Griffing soon if something isn't done. The paving is great, the peoples reaction, less so.
ReplyDeleteAnd when are we going to pave 119th, aka "bumpy road"
H,
DeleteThe person who used to live here said exactly the same thing about part of the apparent result of the paving. He sent me a long text message.
As a resident of 119th, I wonder the same thing.
I hate to harp, but I think we made a mistake with our choice of manager.
Fred
H,
DeleteApparently, there's already an issue on Griffing. One of my friends who lives there just told me about the speedway that Griffing has become.
Fred
One BP resident told me today she has seen our officers in their cruisers in Griffing Park (the triangle with the sculptures on the west side of 6th between 115th and the bridge) sitting for stretches of time, eating lunch, and fiddling with their phones. I have sometimes seen two cruisers, parked next to each other in Griffing Park, with the officers talking to each other. These are paid man hours frittered away doing things that are of no value to BP. BP is like all other municipalities, in that about half our budget pays for the police. We don't need them lounging and yacking. We need them patrolling. That's what the person who reportedly died yesterday needed.
ReplyDeleteFred