Bette Dewing

Incidentally, the “Smile!” and “Don’t rush!” inscribed on my billfold aim to reduce stress and remind me to stow my wallet deep within my pocketbook after a transaction, even if the cashier and those waiting behind me are impatient. Evidently, I wasn’t careful after making a CVS purchase, and shortly after, at the Morton Williams checkout counter, I realized the billfold was missing.

Infinitely more important, of course, are the everyday dangers to life and health. I still can’t find out why Elizabeth Brody is no longer a patient at Cornell-Weill Medical Center. Lack of publicity means I’d better remind you that Ms. Brody is the 28-year-old woman who suffered severe head trauma when struck by one of two cabs that collided as she waited to cross 79th and Second on July 23. No one at the Ann Taylor corporate headquarters where Ms. Brody worked as a buyer has gotten back to me.

We need to know if this beloved daughter and sister survived and also about the intense suffering she endured or endures. Above all, we need to hear these often extremely hard truths from media, so that prevention of traffic tragedies and traffic crimes become a top priority of government.

And it should start at the top. Does, for example, Mitt Romney’s tragic experience as a young man make him more concerned about traffic safety?

It surely relates to deficits and health care costs; traffic crashes cost upward of $160 billion annually. Besides zero tolerance for traffic infractions, government should go all-out on support for mass transit, the safest land travel mode. And, get everyone to slow down, slow down, slow down!

Ah, and Grandparents’ Day is Sunday, Sept 9. Let it not be just one day of remembering. No grandparents? Then adopt an elder who could use some family. Here’s to more visible elders at those conventions and on the campaign trails. I’d vote for anyone who supported all the above.

dewingbetter@aol.com

Photo Courtesy of Andrew Hinderaker / Transportation Alternatives (transalt.org)

The Transportation Alternatives group and community members rallied alongside Clara Heyworth’s widowed husband, Jacob Stevens, on the steps of City Hall this morning, calling on the NYPD to reform their investigations into violent car crashes.

We recently reported on the case of Heyworth, a woman killed in a 2011 hit-and-run by a driver who was never charged due to an investigation and evidence collection breakdown by the NYPD. The NYPD only investigates ten percent of approximately 3,000 serious traffic accidents, despite the law stating that all serious injury crashes should be investigated, a press release on the rally states.

“We’re here today calling on Mayor Bloomberg to convene a Task Force to overhaul traffic enforcement procedures and bring justice to crash victims and their families,” said Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives Paul Steely White on the rally.

Stevens announced his plan to bring a lawsuit against the NYPD for its failure to investigate his wife’s case. “The NYPD made a conscious decision not to investigate the scene of Clara’s death. And we know that this wasn’t an isolated incident—it fits a pattern,” said Stevens.

The NYPD’s Accident Investigation Squad (AIS) is only called to the scene of a crash where a victim is “dead or likely to die,” the release explains. Only officers from this squad are allowed to determine whether the law was broken. The AIS consists of only 19 officers.

Crashes deemed less severe than those investigated by the AIS receive a quick writeup, though state law dictates crashes which result in serious injury must still be investigated by police to the degree of those investigated by AIS.

The “Dead or Likely to Die” rule allows for victims of serious traffic incidents to remain in the hospital for extended periods of time, often in critical condition, with those who perpetrated the accidents going free due to a lack of investigation. In some cases, those not “likely to die” end up dying regardless, some time later. The designation is far too subjective, this policy has proven time after time.

“We must err on the side of caution and sensibility and dispatch the Accident Investigation Squad to the scene of any accident which results in injury and was caused by a reckless driver,” said Council Member Peter Vallone Jr.

“Being hit by a car is the number one cause of injury death for children ages one to twelve in our city,” said Council Member Brad Lander. According to the NYC Department of Transportation, between October 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011, drivers injured 14,608 and killed 71 New Yorkers.

Transportation Alternatives and elected officials are calling for a task force to step up the investigations into these cases, making drivers accountable and hopefully driving these numbers down.

By Bette Dewing

For the record, what I wrote in the recent New York Times’ “Spokes” column (“I strongly fear there are too many bicycles in New York”) left out the next sentence after that: “I mean those who break every law in the books.”

And very much do I fear the increasing number of “private wheels” and walkers that are crowding these finite streets and sidewalks. By far, the safest way to travel is public transit and that has been cut back more and more.

Even when they follow all of the rules, the heedless motoring, bicycling, jogging, pram-pushing, motorized-wheelchair operators and walkers create a stressful environment.

If you remember nothing from this column, make sure and remind our elected officials, who are so scarily allowing the crippling of public transit, that traffic tragedies cost the nation more than 150 billion dollars annually. The human cost is, of course, beyond measure and lasting.

Also remember that elders and disabled persons are the most vulnerable travelers.

I tried to get this message across in a recent training class to 50 newly minted Manhattan District Attorneys, many of them from out of town. As much as I dread public speaking, I agreed to sub for local civic leader Betty Cooper Wallerstein. It took some hours to get the talk together with heavily highlighted talking points. A livery car provided the transit—I also have automobile fear. All pretty traumatic. Am I too sensitive? Yes, but most aren’t sensitive enough!

Traveling down East River Drive to the talk, what did I see out the car window, but a large storage company sign reading: “Storage with Parents Means Having to Visit.”

Anti-parents sentiment is everywhere! So I included, “Do stay close to your folks!” in my very brief address (I always fear taking more than my share of time) to the “Quality of life criminal offenses” class. Well, staying close to one’s family can prevent them.

But back to traffic crimes. They’re too often treated like mere quality of life violations. Often charges aren’t filed even when a traffic tragedy occurs. And quality of life problems that aren’t criminal adversely affect health and cause heart-stopping stress. New York has been called the number one fatal heart attack city.

Noisy neighbors are the number one grievance to 311; more than 127,000 calls have been placed this year alone, says an Aug. 27 Daily News “Noisy Neighbor” feature. Invaluable information on sound-proofing measures and overcoming the heedlessness to blame are found there. Yet this number one grievance is not in the mayor’s noise code. And noisy neighbors can lead to friction, even violence.

On to another topic. While the newly articulated speedy bus’ multi-leveled, cramped interior is not illegal; it can’t help but cause more rider conflict, injuries and costly lawsuits. The only official concern is “trip time,” not rider comfort and safety. I fear the speedier bus plan in high density Manhattan—anywhere, really.

One of my out-of-the-box ideas at the District Attorneys conference was dubbed the “smile crusade,” which tentatively noted: “Makes you feel better, calms the troubled waters. Less crime.”

But how to get these young D.A.s to remember or read my handouts? How to get them to remember that I was the only speaker who needed a steadying hand getting up and down the steps to the podium where I also needed a chair? And to make them realize how few disabled and/or elder persons address, or are able to attend, public forums—making this a social injustice they must surely overcome. And we’ll keep trying. Help!
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dewingbetter@aol.com

Words fail to describe a criminal lawyer’s reaction to this tragedy (“Harsher Penalties in Traffic Crimes,” Aug. 18), along with the “situation that prevails” on the streets of NYC.

To put it succinctly, we have laws that are not enforced; so many drivers have “carte blanche” to do as they wish. Need I tell you who is supposed to enforce the traffic laws? Sad to say, of all the accounts, complaints and suggestions regarding the problem, rarely is there mention of the NYPD’s responsibility in the matter. Until this reality is confronted, people will continue to die on our streets, and the rule of law will suffer another affront.

Nicholas Arena
Upper West Side

By Bette Dewing

Just before the mayor’s weekly John Gambling WOR radio show, I heard the following public service announcement: “Parking violations violate the rights of disabled persons. Call 311 to report.” But where are the warnings to drivers and cyclists against their moving violations, which take lives and physically injure and emotionally stress even traffic law-observant pedestrians?

While the 19th Precinct got back to me on two Upper East Side daytime traffic tragedies, further permission is needed to get their names for the critical follow-up about the condition of the woman, age 80, whose legs were crushed by a tractor-trailer turning into her crosswalk. But what’s the mayor doing to stop this most deadly crime of traffic? A fatally injured man, age 76, was struck by a yellow cab, which a Daily News witness said was speeding—where’s the move to lower the speed limit to reduce death and injury, and also to lower the cost of these accidents and gasoline use? A “safety first” mayor would rescind those cuts in mass transit, the safest travel mode!

Little, if any, follow-up coverage was given the drunk-driver killing of Nelson Mandela’s great-granddaughter, 13, after a Word Cup concert. Little remembered is the killing of this legendary hero’s eldest son in a 1960s traffic tragedy—or Mandela’s words: “It leaves a sorrow which will never go away.”

The mayor spoke briefly of a recent visit with his elder mother in Massachusetts: “How is she?” “Well, she ate more than I did!” Laughter, but nothing about what she said, or that being 100 is difficult, even for the wealthy.

If only the mayor and Gambling, too, had attended the International Longevity Center’s five-day conference held in its gracious, high-ceilinged brownstone at 60 E. 86th St. We heard presenters from myriad age-related fields of physical and mental health, science, government and the private sector, talking about what’s being done to meet healthcare needs, especially of the large, aging Boomer group: “Preventing and treating Alzheimer’s must become as huge a worldwide collective mission as AIDS!” “The need for more geriatricians and general practitioners is critical!”

Dr. Robert Butler, host, president and founder of the International Longevity-Center-USA, is a pioneer gerontologist, long associated with Mount Sinai Medical Center. His book, Why Survive? Being Old in America won a Pulitzer. His latest, The Longevity Prescription, was just released. Butler now knows the elder experience, as did three attending journalists, but only I knew the distinction of needing a cane. Yes, I said “distinction,” and authorities at the conference believe the lack of respect for elders and their disabilities exacerbate “aging problems” and limit treatment. Indeed, while Butler’s earlier book, Ageism, strongly challenged this prejudice, an ever more youth-driven culture and media have made it socially acceptable.

Being providentially assigned a seat next to Leigh Donaldson, a thirtysomething black journalist from Maine, provided me interaction often missing in our age-
segregated society. For one thing, his better hearing was often a help. And we surely agreed in everyone sharing the talk. To be continued. The center’s website is www.ilcusa.org, and email is info@ilcusa.org. The telephone is 212-288-1468. The “real mail” address is 60 E. 86th St., New York, N.Y. 10028.

Very health-care related: heartfelt thanks to two Yorkville school crossing guards retiring this week. Protecting life and limb at considerable risk to themselves are Maryann Medaglio, for her 29 years at 79th and York, and Margaret Novak, for her 18 years at 78th and York, and 12 years at 82nd and Second. You are our heroes!