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Surveillance Videos Of Williamsburg Cyclist's Death Don't Match Investigators' Reports
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 31, 2012
Modified Jan 31, 2012
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John Del Signore/Gothamist
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 31, 2012
Modified Jan 31, 2012
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Under pressure from a lawsuit filed by the family of killed cyclist Mathieu Lefevre, the NYPD has released surveillance video recovered from the scene of the accident last October. And like all the other information that the NYPD has been forced to make public, the videos further underscore the haphazard nature of the investigation. After reviewing the videos, Streetsblog finds that the investigators' description of the videos in their reports does not correspond with what's in the videos. According to Streetsblog:
Even with a close viewing of the videos posted here — two of the four released by NYPD — it’s impossible to corroborate NYPD’s version of how the collision unfolded. (The third video shows the truck traveling on Meserole Street, leaving behind what appears to be Lefevre’s bike mid-block, and the fourth video shows Degianni parking the crane truck, then driving away in another vehicle.)
One detective's accident report states that video shows the driver of a flatbed truck turning right onto Meserole Street as Lefevre overtook him on his bike, headed straight. The driver hit Lefevre "with the passenger right side." But neither video actually shows the moment that driver Leonardo Degianni struck Lefevre. So unless there are more surveillance videos the NYPD has yet to release, it's extremely unclear what the investigators were basing their descriptions on.
“The FOIL documents raise more questions than they answer," says the Lefevre's attorney Steve Vaccaro. "The NYPD’s account of the crash doesn’t hold water, unless there is video or other evidence they are withholding." It could also be that accident investigators are predisposed to place the blame on cyclists when accidents like these happen, and they had not expected Lefevre's family to so doggedly pursue these embarrassing records.
Tagged
accidents
cyclists
fatal cyclist
mathiue lefevre
nypd
williamsburg
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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