Law Student Killed At Intersection Where 2 Others Have Died

15??? He was 15 y.o.? Where did he get a motorcycle at that age and where r his parents?

There was a similar crash at the corner of Q. Ave. and E. Grand later that day.
A lot of people are speeding and being reckless. Accidents are the result.
This comment only applies to the 2 crashes in the Heights and not the one on Foxon. Foxon is the MOST heavily traveled road
in New Haven and I would NEVER attempt to cross it because of the drivers who routinely run red lights.

That headline is misleading given that it's a motorcyclist who was injured.

[Ed.: Thanks. Fixed]

How many more must be injured and killed on State controlled roads? The Foxon Route 80 doesn't have enough crosswalks or crossing lights and doesn't have traffic calming measures. The Route 34 connector in both directions on either side of the Air Rights Garage from Ella Grasso Blvd to the highway entrance is extremely dangerous and heavily travelled by vehicles and pedestrians. We need raised walkways, speed humps, more traffic crossing lights and crosswalks and traffic calming measures.

Those weren't the only recent fatal pedestrian crashes in this area.

If one pedestrian dies on a street, you might think of it as a tragedy or driver error.

But people are being killed and gravely injured repeatedly on this road next to the Yale hospital. So it's clearly a design issue - the road is built in a way that is killing people.

The city and state have had many years to address this. They haven't done a thing beyond issuing distractions and smokescreens.

When pressed for a solution, officials have thrown out unworkable or half-baked ideas such as red light cameras (won't happen, and wouldn't help anyways, since the problem is mostly related to speeding), banners, and painting pictures on the sidewalk. These do nothing to address the underlying issue. Until they do, people will keep dying.

I park in the Air Rights garage and cross the intersection of York and South Frontage frequently - and always fearfully. It is an extremely dangerous intersection where cars go at highway speeds down South Frontage. It's not uncommon to see several vehicles go through the intersection after the light turns red. And this intersection has to be negotiated by a large portion of those who study and work at the medical campus as well as those living in the Hill. There have been 2 other fatalities at this intersection in recent memory and I haven't seen a single thing done since then to prevent another fatality - other than a period where there were small circles painted on the corner sidewalks instructing pedestrians to look where they're going, and a concrete pillar outside the pizza place to prevent another car from going off the road and hitting someone on the sidewalk. Clearly there is some major traffic calming needed leading up to this intersection and the equally dangerous and pedestrian-frequented intersections of York and North Frontage/MLK. Just some speed humps would help a lot - a car hitting someone at 23 mph has 10% risk of killing them vs 75% risk at 50 mph. But I'm just a doctor, not a civil engineer, so I'll leave the details to the experts. What will it take for something effective to be done??

I'm not arguing against better engineering for the roadways or increased enforcement of traffic laws (for all users of the roadways), but it has to be said: pedestrian compliance is a vital part of reducing injuries and fatalities. Casual observation of the behavior of pedestrians around the hospital (and in the city in general) is disheartening.

There's another issue, with the parking garage for 100 College Street, the Alexion buiding. Cars will zoom to the left into the garage, with the intent of bypassing traffic by popping up on the freeway after crossing College Street underground. This is dangerous!

I'm sorry to hear about all these awful incidents. Everyone just needs to be more careful and use common sense. Like this morning when I had the green light and was headed up Grove St. and a young woman ran from Temple right into the intersection without looking. I didn't see her earlier because a van was parked on the right side near the intersection. I braked immediately and she backed off but it could have been a bad situation.

Since all the downtown accidents are in Yale territory; why doesn't Yale dig into those deep pockets and redesign the roads; eliminating most vehicle traffic , building over -road pedestrian walkways and other barriers to slow down cars. They have all the money in this city now. Maybe they should just buy the streets and make them private property. NH can't manage them or anything else much.

Also--- driver negligence and law breaking must be punished severely by the courts. This has to stop.

There's not one mention of the state of the traffic lights relative to the intersection users. Isn't this important to understand what happened?

@deathandtaxes,

I certainly agree with your comment because you would think that when cars go into the garage from S. Frontage it would be only to gain access to park in the garage, but more people probably use it just to get to the highway faster... Which is why I think that they never should have made it easily accessible to get in and out of garage from the highway. The idea of that seemed to be poorly thought-out in my opinion, but I guess only in New Haven that they only come up with ways to make it dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians. It's rather mind boggling...

Horrifying. This type of crash is known as a 'right-hook' and it happens when a turning driver overtakes a person on a bicycle proceeding straight through an intersection and then turns either into, or directly in front of that person.

Since many people riding bikes are under the mistaken belief that riding 'as far to the right as humanly possible' is both required and safest, they are especially vulnerable. It's much safer for a person on a bike to use the rightmost lane that serves their destination--that is, the lane farthest to the right that takes them where they want to go. This principle is at work in a city like New Haven, with generally inadequate active transportation infrastructure (especially in this area).

Regardless, this driver--and all drivers--have a moral obligation to operate their dangerous vehicles with a high degree of care for more vulnerable users, even when the law excuses their reckless behavior.

Anyone who like to let Mayor Elicker know their feelings about the incredible danger involved in being a pedestrian or a cyclist on the streets of New Haven has an opportunity this evening, at the 'Mayor's Night Out'. It will be held this evening in East Rock Park (corner of Orange and Cold Spring) at 5:00 p.m

@ Kurtz - I encourage everyone to view the CRIMINAL DESIGN of this intersection, which is largely responsible for all three fatalities.

Go to the satellite view on Google Maps, and zoom in. It is as the updated article describes. The center lane of York is straight or right turn. The right-most lane is right turn only. The car wasn't at fault. The bicyclist wasn't at fault. The City, State and engineers are to blame.

Really, what is a bicyclist supposed to do? How is he or she supposed to head north on York Street. Take the left or center lane? In heavy traffic?

Enough is enough. Yale, YNHH and Mayor Elicker need to make these intersections safe, even at the cost of millions.

@AT,

Yes, I'm well-aware of the culpability that transportation planners historically bear for the hostility of city streets--both historically, and currently, in light of their failure to respond <i>comprehensively</i> to the clear and present danger of intersections like this one.

The answer to your question is a little complex. According to the law, a person on a bicycle is afforded the same rights and subject to the same responsibilities as the operator of any other vehicle. The theory of 'vehicular cycling,' then, would hold that yes--a bicyclist at that intersection, intending to proceed straight on York Street should use the center lane (the one identified in the article as being both for right-turns and straight through traffic). In the absence of cycling-specific infrastructure, this would be the correct way for a cyclist to use the road, even if it <i>seems</i> counterintuitive.

However, I concede that inexperienced riders would find that intimidating and would make what seems to be a rational choice to use the extreme right side of the road--where they 'feel' safest. Certainly, it seems like a common misconception that bicyclists are guests or secondary users of the streets, required at all times to scrape and scurry before motorists. This is categorically false, of course. There's no special privilege that attaches to a person when they're driving a car. And while I am absolutely not victim-blaming here, the victim's choice to ride in the right-turn only lane was likely a contributing cause (<i>not</i> to this crash, as it sends a message to nearby drivers that he was also intending to turn right. A safe and attentive driver would recognize the multiple possibilities and leave room for the rider to do what he was going to do, even if his actions were at odds with the lane markings.

The problem with the 'vehicular cycling' approach is that it presupposes a level of confidence, fitness, and skill on the part of the rider . . . (continued)

@AverageTaxpayer,

I think it would be a lot better and safer if York Street had a protected cycle-track and instead of there being 3 travel lanes it should just be 2 lanes.

The fact of the matter is that a lot of these streets need traffic calming. *Especially in the Downtown area.

The problem with the 'vehicular cycling' approach is that it presupposes a level of confidence, fitness, and skill on the part of the rider that many people do not possess and cannot be expected to spend the time to develop. After all, we don't expect every person with a driver's license to have the experience and reflexes of a NASCAR or Formula 1 driver--we design the transportation infrastructure to be as user-friendly and forgiving as we possibly can. Guardrails, abundant signage, gentle radius curves, soft shoulders, wide lanes and more--all intended to protect drivers from the consequences of both their own mistakes and the mistakes of others, whether those drivers are inexperienced or impaired in some way.

The safety engineering in cars--seatbelts, crumple zones, air bags, collision detecting systems, and so on--serves the same function. But there's little attention to making the experience safer for more vulnerable users and what does exist, puts the onus on them: cyclists are expected to dismount at demonstrably dangerous and substandard railroad crossing, as on Forbes Avenue. Pedestrians should obey a painted warning on the sidewalk and 'look both ways' before crossing.

But the vulnerable user, of course, assumes the cost not only of their own mistakes, but the dangerous actions of others as well.

Yes, I agree that the cyclist should have technically been in the "middle" lane, but even experienced riders who have gone through this intersection might be hesitant to do that. The road is quite narrow/compacted and a lot of drivers also freak out when there is a bicyclist in the road, often times getting aggressive.
York severely needs a Northbound bicyclist lane. At this moment, the northbound bike lane is Church St., which is also a scary experience because of the cars trying to enter the freeway and then even scarier once across the bridge dealing with drivers exiting the freeway (not to mention that cars consistently park and obstruct the bike line on Church just north of Frontage).

If bicycles are vehicals than the cyclist is in the wrong. I suppose the original problem is that Rt. 34 was suppose to be a highway. Putting a cut thru in the garage is just dumb but no matter this is the only way in and out of town in that area. Should be interesting when the Orange St. grading will add to "chaos."

@George Polk

"If bicycles are vehicals [sic] than the cyclist is in the wrong."

It's actually impossible to determine this with certainty based on the facts presented. As is so often the case, only the survivor's version of events can be taken into consideration. The reporter (presumably citing the police report) writes that the cyclist "continued riding straight through the intersection."

It seems that there's no way to know whether he was intending to continue riding straight or turn right onto South Frontage. It's immaterial, however, because by declaring him "in the wrong" you're making the common mistake of conflating fault, cause, and blame which are separate things and should be assigned discretely.

This intersection, and many other ones, need to be redesigned. Fewer vehicle lanes (fewer automobile lanes per direction, removal of all right-turn-only vehicle lanes in the city center), bike lanes that are carried through intersections, and importantly: signals need to be revised to have bicycle signal-phases in the center of New Haven. Design guidance here: https://nacto.org/publication/urban-bikeway-design-guide/dont-give-up-at-the-intersection/. and here: https://globaldesigningcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/iRAP-Star-Ratings-of-the-Global-Street-Design-Guide.pdf. and here: https://www.mass.gov/lists/separated-bike-lane-planning-design-guide.

A man was murdered and two people were critically wounded by self-centered sociopaths driving cars - I find the victim-blaming by many in the comments disgusting. The drivers cared more about their speed than looking carefully around them, and they killed people because they didn't care about the lives of others. Is their culpability lessened because most drivers in New Haven seem to share their mentality and that city, state, and federal government engineers design and maintain streets in ways that facilitate daily carnage? No. Clearly

The United States has a sick culture around driving and the design of transportation infrastructure, but New Haven's crises stem from a special disregard for life in this city and state. Several commenters show how ingrained sociopathic ideas about "drivers' rights" are in civic culture here.

This an emergency. Mayor Elicker and Doug Hauslauden seem like committed advocates with deep experience and care for this issue, but I urge them to find ways to radically transform the incrementalist approach being taken by the city.

@William Kurtz. True I suppose if the truck driver made a hard right instead of middle lane to middle lane, the cyclist might not have been aware that the middle lane is also for a right turn, I don't think a cyclist would want to travel on that portion of Frontage if they didn't have to. I am very careful driving through that area, is it me or do the yellow lights seem to change quicker? I find on Frontage and MLK they are almost at a blink, that can cause collisions as well. Maybe bicycle traffic lights in that and the downtown area will help, remind cyclists they are on a busy congested area.

Vehicular manslaughter may be the proper charge. Or maybe other motor vehicle charges. like speeding, improper turn, failure to yield, etc..... I don't know all the terms but I know what murder is.

Murder implies that drivers went out with intention to kill a particular person. Let's not get over-wrought and let's use the dictionary before we start throwing around charges from our laptops.

The article deals with three separate incidents in which the injured/deceased party has contributed in varying degrees to the incident (stepping in front of a moving vehicle, travelling in the wrong lane and overtaking a turning vehicle, proceeding straight in a turn only lane and failing to observe a vehicle making a legal turn, riding into the side of the vehicle) and yet the consensus appears to be that the driver(s) should be facing murder or manslaughter charges.
No wonder every time I have to drive through New Haven I find myself wishing there was an alternative route.

This is really unfortunate. And while I agree that the driver should be cautious (I always scope for cyclists before I turn), in this case, even if they were both turning at a relatively modest 15-20mph, I don't think the driver would have any time at all to react to the bicycle going straight. And if they did, hitting the brakes in the middle of a turn could cause a pile up, thrusting the car forward and having the same result. I agree with all calling this out as a pitiful failure of road design.

Or maybe it would help a lot if York Street became a two-way between S. Frontage and Howard Avenue with having bike lanes added on both sides. I think traffic would be more calm in the area if there were more ways to get around easier.

The intersection of York and South Frontage Road is a focused failure within a system of roads and intersections which have not been designed for the safety (or comfort) of non-motorized users. While we need to find a way to do an emergency fix at this intersection, we also need to look at temporary and permanent repairs to the newly re-built intersections around it. The back-in loading dock for tractor trailers and trucks at this intersection needs to be closed (as had been promised when Smilow was built, in return for the understory of Air Rights Garage being rebuilt for loading docks), and replaced with a well designed office / medical building. That would help reinforce that this is a place designed for people first, and provide the Hospital with much needed space.

Changes need to be made to most of the new road and sidewalk configurations in the area. The high traffic volumes, long crosswalks, multi-lane intersections, and high speeds makes this most essential route between city centers an exhausting and ugly obstacle course. Every intersection puts the convenience of vehicles before the safety and comfort of peds or bikes. The new signage in the area is still standard highway signage, which clearly signals that those driving habits are planned for and sanctioned here. Of course drivers will follow these cues -- consciously and unconsciously. Lowering speed limits is a good step, but unless our streets are designed to support only safe driving, the lower speed limits will have little positive effect on their own.

Straight in a right turn lane, ouch !! Even if he was driving this could cause an accident.

Bicycles are a vehicle of traffic, should adhere to and abide by all traffic laws/signage and are subject to the same infractions and penalties as cars.
(i.e.: traffic tickets)

Sorry the student died, a horrible tragedy for just not paying attention to the rules of the road.

Maybe now the police will have a reason to at least issue verbal warnings to bicyclists for their own safety.
They can start at the intersection of Prospect & Sachem where it is a free for all as they sit in their marked police cars and just watch the chaos in front of the Yale Whale.

These street simply have too much traffic. I have spent an hour going from Park Street to the highway. In the last three decades, we have seen both the closure of the Oak Street Connector and increased development, with more people needing to get in and out of the Medical Center area. Going under the Air Rights garage eliminates waiting for at least two traffic lights. Proper planning would have left the Oak Street Connector in place, and even extended it under the Air Rights Garage out to Dwight removing through traffic from the local roads as was envisioned sixty years ago. (No, all the medical center employees cannot live within walking or bicycling distance, in part because New Haven does not want them to, opposing efforts to upgrade housing like Church Street South.)

The Oak street connector was literally a highway that went nowhere. In cities usually highways or expressways that are somewhat abandoned or that is no longer needed for the purpose of redevelopment eventually gets torn down. In this case I think that it was good that the city had eliminated the highway, simply because it makes more space for much needed development and it made sense because it basically divided Downtown from other surrounding neighborhoods.

quinnchionn: The Oak Street Connector was hardly a highway to nowhere. It connected New Haven's major commercial, cultural and employment centers to the outside world, as well as help, especially after the construction of North Frontage Road through to The Boulevard, the east and west sides of New Haven. In no way was it abandoned, rather, it was heavily travelled every day, a central line for New Haven.

The City spent less than $1 million on infrastructure in 2020. A few million from Yale, to improve the infrastructure around the hospital and University and throughout the City, could have prevented a young student's death, and a dozen other deaths this year. A few million would not be missed from Yale's $30 billion endowment. Yale should have the integrity to contribute to save lives, and the City should have the confidence and self-respect to demand fair treatment from its guest, before any more lives are needlessly lost.

[quote]
a lot of drivers also freak out when there is a bicyclist in the road, often times getting aggressive.
[/quote]

This is too true. I've learned to take the lane when I need to for my own safety, but that lesson took many miles of cycling on roads with no bike lane (and in some cases no shoulder) to learn, and even now I sometimes make an exception when traffic is dense/fast enough or the people behind me seem determined to run me off the road. I do a good bit of sidewalk biking during rush hour for that reason -- I've come about two feet from having a car plow into my back wheel on Trumbull Street before while everyone was "following the rules," and I don't want to re-roll that die. Similarly with a small truck on Whalley. And I'm reminded of a time when I was biking in one of the left-turn lanes of Elm Street, with my Church Street turn just a half a block ahead, and a driver pulled up on my right-hand side just so that she could roll down her window, yell "Use the bike lane!", and speed off.

Point being, cyclists have to simultaneously deal with drivers' expectations that they'll do the "legal thing," and [i] other [/i] drivers' expectations that they'll do the "polite thing," i.e. staying as far to the right as humanly possible / getting the hell out of the way. Defying either of these conflicting expectations has safety implications, which are unknown because you usually can't know which type of driver you have behind you. This is also why you often see less experienced cyclists weaving in and out of the parking lane as they encounter parked cars, another practice that's usually dangerous but can occasionally be a reasonable response to real pressure from drivers.

If you're victim blaming here, it's because you haven't cycled in New Haven before (or maybe any urban environment). This death is both a tragedy and an addition to the already long list of pedestrian (non-driver) fatalities in New Haven over the past year. Something needs to change.

Andrew Giering: What design changes do you propose that would cost millions? Taking a travel lane and making it bike-only would squeeze car traffic and frustrate drivers even more. Ottawa and Copenhagen has separate lanes and signal lights for bicycles , but that would cost billions. As it is, new parking spots squeeze on the the existing roads slow traffic.) Yale is contributing toward installation of a second sidewalk on Pearl Street, but, as with other commentators, I am doubtful as to how much it will help when SOM's future Masters of the Universe ignore the sidewalk that is already there to walk in the middle of the street. Should YNHH and the medical school follow the Nursing School to West Haven? Such a move would cost several billion, but could be done. It would certainly lessen congestion. (Dartmouth moved its hospital and medical school out of Hanover a few years ago.) The outpatient services at 800 Howard could be closed, with employees working from existing Milford and Guilford locations. Public Health and Pharmacology could easily move to West Haven.Further down the road, the entire University of Bridgeport's seaside campus is available, as is the old Harding High School, adjacent to Bridgeport Hospital.

1644, New Haven won't get a dime more from Yale unless we are united in demanding what we deserve.

But to answer your question, there are a number of infrastructure improvements, recommended 10 years ago when I was a law student biking around town, in the City's Complete Streets Policy, which was adopted pursuant to an order from the Board of Alders to "accommodate[e] . . . the safety and convenience of all users of the transportation system using a Complete Streets hierarchy of users, which begins with pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users," that would cost millions, not billions. They include sidewalk widening, pavement markings, speed bumps, refuge islands, bump-outs, chicanes, diverters, counter-flow bike lanes, bike signage, and many more.

These aren't new issues or problems. My great-grandfather was killed by a car crossing Whitney Avenue almost a century ago. His death forced my grandfather and his siblings to leave school and enter the workforce at an appallingly young age. Our culture has prioritized cars over people and bicycles almost since their invention. It was never sensible or moral to do so, given the comparative vulnerabilities of a flesh-and-blood human being and a ton of deadly metal, but it's where we are and have long been as a society. The Complete Streets Policy recognizes that "our street design and management has for many years prioritized motorized transportation," but points the way toward adopting a hierarchy that instead prioritizes the most vulnerable people on our streets. It is long since time that the City meaningfully implemented its recommendations.

And the Mayor's response? It's not my fault. It's the suburbs and Yale. We can't be expected to solve our own problems. There's leadership.

@alphabravocharlie - Can you direct me to the source of Elicker's supposed quote? You know that guy has only been in office for ten months, and during a pandemic no less, but he is constantly being blamed for longstanding problems in this city. What did Harp and DeStefano do when pedestrians were killed under their watch?

Oh yeah, I forgot, systemic racism too.

https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-haven/residents-yale-students-demand-action-to-make-new-haven-intersection-safer-for-foot-traffic-cyclists/

Perhaps you didn't read carefully, @alphabravocharlie.

According to the WTNH link you posted, this is what Elicker said:

The mayor is calling on Yale University and surrounding suburbs to play more of a role in helping the city achieve its goals of improving the streets.

Maybe you are the one doing the blaming.

Some folks' driver-first mindset is through the roof. I drive a car most often as my mode of travel, but I'd gladly see vehicle-lanes removed from these streets in order to put in protected-bike-lanes, which would also basically shorten crosswalk crossing distances, that'd make New Haven a safer and more attractive place for people on foot/bike/not in a car. Drivers getting squeezed into fewer lanes only causes your driving trip to be somewhat longer. Bicyclists and pedestrians getting squeezed has a far more dangerous outcome. Cities that have a lot of things going on and people who want to be there will inevitably have some congestion. It is what it is, and is in fact the reason why investment and new buildings are going up here, and why the institutions already here are unlikely to leave. And folks who drive do have options, such as using a different route, driving at an off-peak time, switching to a different mode of travel. Therefore, don't let unnecessary concerns over congestion and 'driver frustration' get in the way of making our city safer and more livable. (And btw, there's a lot of easy driving out in the boondocks...)

Andrew Giering: I love all those solutions, but I don't see them as practical at this intersection. As a driver and pedestrian, I love bump-outs because they make pedestrians waiting to cross visible to drivers. They would be great on Whalley and The Boulevard. I would think that for bicyclists, however, they force bicyclists into traffic and lessen the space between cars and bicycles turning. At this intersection, cars and trucks turning from York to Frontage would be forced into each other as the narrowed. As it is, these streets are too narrow for the volume of traffic on them now. A traffic engineer would likely tell us that they need two more lanes for motor vehicles. Tragedies like this bicyclist's death would be even more frequent with a bump out that constricted bicyclists' space. As for the medical student who was killed, the driver literally drove up onto he sidewalk to kill her. The only solution for pedestrian safety I see here is forcing pedestrians underground, as is common in Seoul, and occasionally in other major cities. Tunneling is expensive, but could be done. BTW, I do not see many bicyclists in Seoul. (Yale had a proposal to tunnel Elm Street between York and The Green.)
"Hausladen .... explaining that foot traffic and auto traffic are inherently at odds. 'Yalies want pedestrianism and the region of New Haven is a vehicular-based region,' he argued. The prioritization of pedestrians would constrict New Haven's auto thoroughfares and prevent commuters from efficiently getting to work, in order to 'take all the space back just for Yalies' use.'" http://www.thenewjournalatyale.com/2019/12/the-road-less-traveled/

1644- on LakeShore Drive in Chicago they have pedestrian/bike tunnels with emergency call boxes and lighting, and pedestrian/bike overpass ramps, as well as crosswalks with crossing lights up and down it's stretch along the Lake. It's basically a mini-highway separating downtown from its lakefront parks and attractions. I think for Ella Grasso Blvd, Route 80 and both sides of the Route 34 connector (Legion Ave, Frontage Rd, Rev.Dr. MLK Jr) that bike lanes with left turn boxes and gradual ramps to overpasses for pedestrians with a shared Bike/wheelchair lane with lane markers for each and a stop sign at exit lanes to look out for each other would work well in these raceway like streets. For Whalley, Dixwell, Whitney and other more residential streets, bike lanes with left turn boxes at intersections, narrower 1 lanes streets with a center left turn car lanes and pedestrian safety islands and raised crosswalks and longer crossing times at crosswalks, better downward crosswalk pedestrian lighting and coordinated timing of traffic red lights would help everybody share the road, and alleviate some of the driver frustration. Trees also help to slow vehicles down for some reason.

It is not reasonable to draw conclusions from three incidents spaced over 12 years; I don't know what rate of incidence is high enough for an intersection to be considered dangerous, but I can't imagine that this one meets the standard. The incidents are widely varied in nature; there is not a consistent pattern. In two of them, the dead person (one cyclist, one pedestrian) was clearly at fault. In the other, a person on the sidewalk was killed by a car; she was not a pedestrian crossing the intersection.

I allow that the intersection, as currently designed, is not friendly to cyclists intimidated by auto traffic.

What was a 15 year old doing driving a motorcycle?

The intersection of York St. & S. Frontage Rd was perfectly engineered to kill off pedestrians and bicyclists. Thousands of YNHHS staff and med school students regularly cross Frontage without waiting for the walk light and failing to look over their left shoulders for turning traffic. I propose that Yale Med School and Tale New Haven give mandatory courses on crossing streets in an urban setting. A similar course should be given to cyclists.

> The intersection of York St. & S. Frontage Rd was perfectly engineered to kill off pedestrians and bicyclists.

If that were really true, then we would see a much-higher incidence of incidents.

Incidence of incidents, precedence of precedence, can NHI's Pandemic Poet write a light-hearted Gilbert and Sullivan style song about people being mangled by cars? Perhaps to the tune of the Very Model of A Modern Major General. Little Corner of Horrors?

precedence of precedents! This stuff is confusing!