Introduction – On Friday November 17, 2023,the Albany Bicycle Coalition, Walkable Albany, and Capital Streets, held a demonstration for Albany City Victims of Traffic Violence as part of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. Elected leaders and city officials gathered with us along with people around the world to remember those needlessly killed and seriously injured in crashes. We called for specific actions by the City of Albany to respond to the needless deaths of at least 19 people on bicycles or walking in the city between 2013 and 2023.
Presentation – We thanked the following for joining us in support of the event: NY Assembly Member Pat Fahy, Albany Police Department Chief Eric Hawkins, Mayor Sheehan’s Chief of Staff, David Galin, Albany City Treasurer Darius Shahinfar, and Albany County Legislator Susan Quine-Laurilliard.
Prepared Remarks by Ed Brennan, ABC President – In a few minutes, those who have gathered here will read the names of pedestrians and cyclists who died from traffic violence in our city. Sometimes we may know a pedestrian or cyclist died from a crash at a location, but we don’t know their names. I suspect some of these people may have hung on for a while in a hospital before they passed. They may have outlasted the news cycle, so their names were never reported. All we have – without FOILing their records – is statistical information such as that found in the Federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System and in local media. Try to remember that these were actual people – with families that lost them – and not just statistics. We have seen at least 49 traffic violence deaths on Central Avenue since the start of 2001, including David Herskind just 6 days ago.
Sa’Nya Blaylock, died on Central Avenue, Thursday April 15, 2021, around 10:30pm. She was an Albany resident and Albany High student, Unlike the other victims, we recognize Sa’Nya wasn’t killed in Albany, but she was killed on Central Avenue – the deadliest stretch of road in the Capital Region. A road that Albany shares with the Town of Colonie.
Sa’Nya had gotten off her late shift at Kentucky Fried Chicken, crossed Central Avenue to catch her bus, and was struck and killed by a motor vehicle.
- Maybe she was tired after a long day at school and night’s work at KFC.
- Maybe she was in a hurry to get home and do homework.
- Maybe she was in a hurry to get off work and get back to being a teenager.
- Maybe she thought the vehicle coming was her bus and she didn’t want to miss it.
- We don’t know if she made a mistake in the way she crossed the street or not, but if she made a mistake, she didn’t deserve a death sentence.
Central Avenue was the subject of an extensive 18-month road corridor safety study published in 2015 that came back with what they call a “Three E’s” Approach: Education, Enforcement and Engineering
“Safety is our top priority there, and we’ve done a lot of work and studying on Central Avenue,” said the state DOT spokesperson. “The department’s goal,” he said, “is for both drivers and pedestrians to understand the rules of the road.”
New York State Department of Transportation did a number of things, including $2M in improvements such as better crossing signals – but they would not lower the speed limit or change the road in any way to encourage drivers to slow down.
Since the beginning of 2016 we figure another 19 people have died on Central Avenue.
Looking at state statistics and comparing 2019 before COVID with 2022 in Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Saratoga Counties, we have seen fewer collisions in each county – but more fatalities with those fewer collisions and more serious injuries with those fewer collisions.
How does that happen?
There are two primary factors that determine how violent a crash is – mass and velocity. Since 2019, both these factors have gone in the wrong direction.
We all know that speeding has increased.
Every year our vehicles have also gotten bigger. Earlier this year the three highest selling new motor vehicles were the Ford F-Series Truck, the Chevy Silverado, and the Dodge Ram. Massive vehicles that will do more damage in a collision.
Our newer, more massive trucks and SUVs are also built higher so they are more dangerous – especially to pedestrians. What used to be a lower body injury, like a broken leg or pelvis, is now an upper body injury to one’s organs or for shorter people, like children, there are often more devastating head injuries.
The city cannot do much about the size of vehicles, but the city can lower speeds to make collisions less devastating and less likely.
We see laudable efforts to get alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers off the road. But we need to understand that speeders are also impaired drivers.
- The speeder impairs their ability to stop their vehicle within the distance necessary to avoid a collision.
- The speeder impairs their ability to react to a potential collision by giving themselves less time.
- The speeder also impairs their ability to recognize a potential collision. There are limits to how much visual information we can process in a given space of time. The faster the speed, the more to process and the narrower speeder’s effective field of vision becomes. This problem is worse in dense urban environments where there is so much more to watch out for.
As we remember these people that have died and suffered serious injuries from traffic violence, we ask that the city honor them by doing three things that make it less likely that more people and their families face such loss and suffering.
- Lower the city speed limit on all non-limited access roads to 25 miles per hour to make crashes less likely and less devastating.
- Install speed cameras in our school zones to protect our young people using the law that our State Assembly Member Pat Fahy and State Senator Neil Breslin fought to pass.
- Carry out the recommendations of the Washington Park Study. Make this Historic City Jewel a park for the safe enjoyment of the people of Albany and not a high-speed parkway for cars.
Ten Years of Traffic Victims in Albany (2013 – 2023 as of November 14, 2023) – The Albany Bicycle Coalition developed this list based on local media reports, Federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System, and other sources. At this point in the demonstration, 19 volunteers stepped up one at a time to the microphone and read the essentials of each victim’s demise.
- Unidentified Pedestrian – 11/8/23 (age 67) Two cars hit and killed the victim near Exit 2 on southbound I-787 in Albany. The man was struck by one car as the vehicle tried to merge into traffic at 7:16 PM. State Police said the driver was initially unaware the vehicle had hit someone. The man was then struck by a second vehicle and died at the scene.
- Larry Cunningham – 10/24/22 (age 62) A drunken car driver struck and killed pedestrian on a sidewalk near the intersection of 3rd Ave. and Elizabeth St. Albany. Driver Jose Guevara-Bonilla, a 26-year-old city man was charged with aggravated drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident and other offences. Police issued several tickets and said more charges are possible.
- Pernell Compston – 10/6/22 (no age) Compston was hit by a SUV and a pickup truck just after 10 pm when he was crossing the street near the intersection of Northern Blvd. and Shaker Rd., Albany.
- Tanisha Brathwaite – 7/14/22 (age 31) Drunk driver killed pedestrian. Hit-and-run driver struck and killed pedestrian at 6:00 PM on Clinton Ave. at the intersection with Henry Johnson Blvd., Albany. Driver sentenced to 8 to 24 years for aggravated vehicular homicide and several DWI counts.
- Kathleen McBride – 7/7/22 (age 52) Van struck and killed a pedestrian on Central Ave.
- Unidentified Pedestrian – 5/21 (no age) Per the New York State Traffic Safety Statistical Repository, there was a pedestrian death in Albany during this month. Could not find report in the local newspaper.
- Unidentified Pedestrian – 3/21 (no age) Per the New York State Traffic Safety Statistical Repository, there was a pedestrian death in Albany during this month. Could not find local newspaper report.
- Unidentified Pedestrian – 9/24/20 (no age) A pedestrian was killed in a collision between 7 and 8 PM on Church St. Albany. This was not at an intersection, there was no drunk driving involved, and the weather was clear but dark.
- Richard Harmon – 5/21/20 (age 76) Pedestrian hit and killed at North Allen St. and Manning Blvd. [Times Union, Saturday, 5/23/20, pg. D3]
- Unidentified Pedestrian – 9/24/19 (age 50) A car driver going west on Washington Ave. Extension hit and killed a male pedestrian who apparently tried to cross the street in the evening. [Times Union, 9/26/19, Section: Obituaries, pg. C5]
- Unidentified Pedestrian – 8/8/19 (age 67) Truck hit and seriously injured a male pedestrian, intersection of Madison Ave. and Dove St. around 1 PM. After being treated at the scene, the man was taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital by ambulance. His condition was not immediately available. [Times Union Friday, 8/9/19, pg. C4. Apparently this individual later died as the Federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) lists this a pedestrian death.]
- Ludmilla Vink – 2/20/18 (age 92) Pedestrian, was identified as the victim in the fatal car-pedestrian crash on Washington Ave., Albany. [Times Union Thursday, February 22, 2018, pg. C2]
- Roger L. Sawyer – 10/19/17 (age 30) Bicyclist run down and killed by a SUV, Washington Ave. Ext., Albany.
- Edston J. Kirnon – 7/22/17 (age 42) Bicyclist collided with side of CDTA bus, N. Pearl St., Albany.
- Rajine Martinez 2/4/17 (age 21) Killed by hit-and-run SUV driver, Washington Park Rd. near New Scotland Ave., Albany
- Gregory Abram-Skinner – 12/23/16 (age 21) At 7:00-8:00 PM on Washington Ave. Ext. at Springsteen Ave., Albany, a drunk driver struck and killed the pedestrian.
- Ashiqur Rahman – 12/2015 (age 4) The driver of a refuse truck struck and killed the victim at 8:00-9:00 AM on Central Ave. at Quail St., Albany as he was crossing in the crosswalk, holding his mother’s hand, and walking with the pedestrian “walk” light.
- Qazir Sutherland – 6/15/13 (age 7) The car diver, 37, of Albany, was traveling north in her sedan on S. Pearl, Albany when she struck and killed the victim as he was crossing the street to meet his mother. The driver was not charged.
- Katherine Parker – 2/21/13 (age 28) At 10:22 PM a minivan driver heading west struck and killed the victim on Central Ave. at King Ave., Albany. The victim was walking north to cross Central Ave.
Media Presence – The Albany Bicycle Coalition was grateful for coverage of the event by the following media outlets:
Albany Bicycle Coalition 