NYPD Tracking Bike Accidents for Trends

By Will Yakowicz 

The NYPD will now report bicycle accidents the same way they report car accidents.

On Thursday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly decided that bicycle crashes should be reported and tracked just like any other accident or crime, the New York Daily News reports.  

The new initiative is designed to track the number of accidents between cyclists and pedestrians. 

According to The News, a new study has found that 500 pedestrians are taken to the hospital after being hit by bikers every year.

On Atlantic Avenue at Vanderbilt in September of 2010 and in December of 2011 on Vanderbilt Avenue and Park Place, but were not injured. 

In Prospect Park there has been accidents between last year and a couple accidents.

And Councilmen Steve Levin, D-Williamsburg, and Brad Lander, D-Park Slope, have been pushing legislation to make sure accident investigators are sent to .

Kelly said that the NYPD will document the accidents and study them for trends.

“This reporting process will allow the department to track bicycle accidents like typical car accidents,’’ an NYPD spokeswoman told The News.

Doug Gordon, the founder of the website Brooklyn Spoke, said that Kelly’s new initiative is a good thing.  

“The NYPD should be tracking all accidents, no matter how they occur and use that information to allocate their resources proportionately,” said Gordon. “It’s better to have more info than less.”

Councilmember Stephen Levin told Patch that he has not been able to speak directly with the NYPD yet to get all the details on how they will be investigating accidents.

“The faster the commissioner is trying to include more vehicle, pedestrian and bike crashes is a small step in the right direction,” Levin said. “But not knowing the specifics and details of what kind of investigations will be involved with the reports, it’s hard to know if this is the serious change I am hoping for.”

A request was made with the NYPD for comment.