Paul Steely White, the director of Transportation Alternatives, addresses reporters. (image by Kristina Monllos via Gothamist)
Last week, we posted about the tragic news of artist Mathieu Lefevre’s death when he was cycling on Morgan Avenue in Williamsburg. This week, his family arrived in New York from Montreal, and they are demanding answers.
On Wednesday, during a press conference at 1 Police Plaza, Lefevre’s family from Canada was accompanied by Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, in an effort to highlight the tragedy and the lack of charges against the truck driver.
According to Gothamist:
… [White] opened the press conference by listing many cases where drivers have clearly broken the law, killing pedestrians and cyclists who were obeying the law, and yet charges were not filed.
We went on to present a few chilling facts:
There is no other way to kill person in New York City where to say ‘I didn’t see him’ is allowed as an excuse. 270 New Yorkers died last year in collisions. 77,253 were injured. Many people, including some police officers, will blame the victims and say it’s their fault. But, in seventy percent of these tragedies — look it up New York DMV — the driver responsible was breaking a traffic law at the time of the collision.
According to the New York Observer, the artist’s mother has found the police silence around the death the most troubling. “What compounds this tragedy is a failure to get information from the police about what happened to our son,” she said.
The newspaper also reported the NYPD has not returned Lefevre’s things, including his helmet and bike, to the family.
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