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Bratton: "We're Not Going To Get To Zero" Traffic Deaths

Emma Whitford

Published Mar 10, 2016

Modified Mar 10, 2016

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Emma Whitford

Published Mar 10, 2016

Modified Mar 10, 2016

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Fielding questions from former New York Times executive editor and traffic crash victim Jill Abramson at the 2016 Vision Zero Conference on Thursday, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton defended his department's role in reducing the number of traffic-related deaths in NYC, while predicting that the initiative's goal of zero deaths by the year 2024 is unachievable.

"We're not going to get to zero," he said. "It's a great goal, and we're still striving... but the reality of it is much like the reality of crime. As long as we have humans who are walking and riding, bicycles and cars—as long as we have people, we will have crime."

Indeed, Bratton's opening remarks on Thursday morning were delivered somewhat like a crime statistics press conference at One Police Plaza. Making liberal use of the word "accident" (a banner on the conference website reads "let's stop saying accident today"), Bratton ran through the numbers: 233 traffic fatalities in 2015, compared to 269 the year previous; 14 cyclist deaths in 2015, compared to 20 the year previous.

Pedestrian injuries are up this year to date—38 in total compared to 33 this time last year. However, the Commissioner stressed that summonses are also up—28% for speeding, 38% for red lights, 19% for improper turns, 47% for texting. Bratton also emphasized that 400 drivers have been summonsed, and 11 arrested, in 2016 for alleged violations of the Right-of-Way Law—a 2014 law that made failing to yield to pedestrians and cyclists a misdemeanor offense.

Twelve drivers were arrested and charged with misdemeanors for failing to yield in the first four months of that law's implementation, according to City data. As of last December, a total of 24 had been charged. For comparison, a report issued that month by Transportation Alternatives found that about 4,000 hit-and-run crashes in 2015 resulted in injury or death. Only 1% of the drivers in those crashes were charged with a crime (advocates have also blamed the borough District Attorneys for this statistic).

But while Bratton was quick to admit on Thursday that the NYPD's Collision Investigation Squad (CIS) is faced with more traffic incidents than it could possibly investigate, additional CIS officers are not part of his 2016 budget plans. "We will not be increasing significantly the number of [CIS] investigators," he said. "What we have expanded is [their] responsibility." Indeed, until two years ago, CIS only had the jurisdiction to investigate crashes that resulted in death. Now the unit can investigate crashes involving serious injuries as well.

In the coming year, Bratton said that he is going to push for 400 to 500 additional traffic enforcement agents, to supplement the 3,000 currently on the street. With a larger force, the Commissioner says he'll be better able to mediate traffic congestion around construction sites, and deploy more officers to schools that are short on crossing guards.

Also in 2016, traffic enforcement agents will be able to pull up traffic incident reports on their department-issue tablets. Crash victims won't have to wait for paperwork processing before filing insurance claims. "We're going to be much for focused on customer satisfaction," Bratton said.

Abramson kept pushing the subject of CIS ranks, citing a Transportation Alternatives statistic that out of 3,500 serious traffic injuries in 2015, only 10% were investigated. But Bratton insisted that his department has "many priorities," including terrorism.

"As crime goes down and it frees up officers from that, there is the potential to expand into other areas, including increased investigations of non-fatal accidents and injury collisions," he said.

Reminding the audience that "traditional crime"—encompassing murders, shootings, rapes—has decreased 80% since 1990, Bratton stressed that his goal is no different when it comes to traffic incidents. "A death is a death," he said. "An injury is an injury."

But asked if he would consider replacing the word "accident" with the word "crash"—doing so, advocates argue, would help reinforce the driver's culpability—Bratton said that he would not. "Crashes, accidents you can call them whatever you want. Right now we classify them as accidents," he said.

And yet, under Bratton's predecessor Ray Kelly, the NYPD unit that investigates crashes quite deliberately changed its name from the Accident Investigation Squad to the Collision Investigation Squad in 2013. Maybe Bratton just needs a few more years to catch up.

Tagged

Bill Bratton

cis

crash

nypd

vision zero

original

Emma Whitford

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