Last year there was a pedestrian accident on E Hartsdale Ave. The pedestrian survived. We asked Police Chief Chris McNerney to come up with pedestrian safety initiatives for the Avenue. Immediately after the accident new lights were installed on the avenue. Old street light bulbs were replaced with high intensity LED bulbs.
What else is happening? I received the following report from the Chief yesterday.

Yesterdays tragic accident on the Sprain Parkway was not the first fatal accident on the Sprain. It wasn't the second or third. Serious accidents happen too often on the Sprain. I received a call from an unnamed NYS police officer who advised me that NYS has cut back on patrols of the Sprain Parkway. The police are doing their job patrolling the parkways but the state police (due to budget cuts) does not have the resources to adequately patrol the parkway. He indicated that there was only ONE PATROL CAR patrolling over 20 miles on the night of the fatal accident -Thursday night. I have written to state lawmakers suggesting that the state budget allocate more funds for police patrols on state parkways, thruways and highways. The Sprain Parkway has become a speedway - with many cars speeding -going 70, 80 miles an hour.

ANOTHER SUGGESTION: SENSORS COULD ALERT MOTORISTS IF THEY ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY...

Honk if ... You’re Going the Wrong Way

By Vicki Hyman | The Star-Ledger
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on February 14, 2011 at 6:00 AM, updated February 15, 2011 at 9:51 AM

Frank Becerra, Jr.Wrong way driving can end in fatal accidents, like this one on the Taconic State Parkway in 2009.

In November, Patrick Smith, a custodian and father of two, was on his way home to Hackensack when a Cadillac Escalade driven by Pablo Ovalles slammed head-on into his car. Ovalles, who survived, was believed to be drunk and fleeing an earlier fender-bender on Fordham Road. He was definitely going the wrong way on the Major Deegan.
It was the second wrong-way crash in New York that month. A week earlier, a New York police officer died after another suspected drunk driver drove the wrong way on the Northern State Parkway on Long Island. And a year ago, a Long Island mother driving with a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit killed herself and seven others when she drove south in the northbound lanes of the Taconic State Parkway.
November’s double whammy led a Long Island district attorney to ask state transportation officials to consider rumble strips, lower signs, fog line reflectors and reflective red sur-faces on the backs of highway signs to alert drunks they’re driving the wrong way.
Other cities have installed sensors or cameras that trip flashing signs warning drivers they’re driving against traffic. On a Houston toll road, for example, radar detectors can sense a car going the wrong way and signs will flash to alert the driver. More to the point, however, highway signs will alert other drivers that there’s a ding-bat headed their way. (The actual wording: “Warning: Wrong-way driver ahead. All motorists pull to the shoulder and stop.”) The system also alerts police, who can get in front of the driver and stop him with spike strips. The cost: $350,000.

I believe that the cost of additional officers and sensors could be paid for with revenues from tickets issued on the parkways.
Paul Feiner