The 66th Precinct Has A New Traffic Hotline, Plus Recent Traffic Complaints In Our Area

Taking a cue from his public, the 66th Precinct‘s Deputy Inspector Michael Deddo has made safe vehicle travel a higher priority and set up a new precinct traffic hotline: 718-851-3414.

Traffic safety, conditions, vehicle issues, and 311 follow-through will now get the full attention of Officer Matthew Cronin, a traffic safety specialist, and Sergeant Lesley Charles. The officers will be out on traffic patrol during the day and busily returning hotline phone calls at night.

DI Deddo announced the new development at the November Community Council meeting, as well as last week’s Community Board 12 meeting. Complaints voiced at those meetings, as well as October’s Community Council meeting, include:

• A car service whose drivers double- or triple-park, blocking access to one neighbor’s driveway. She said the drivers in question refuse to move, hang out in front of her house until late, leave garbage behind, and urinate on the curb.

• Another woman complained she had to negotiate access to her driveway because the ambulette belonging to a new doctor’s office parks there from 7am-5pm every day. In addition, she said, it honks its horn all day while waiting to pick up patients.

• A complaint about cars double-parked in front of bus stops, which means the bus driver has to drop off passengers in the middle of the street instead of at the curb.

• A woman called the police when she discovered her car had flat tires. They gave her air, but the next day, she says she found her front tires had been stabbed.

“We don’t talk about traffic enough,” DI Deddo said at the October precinct Community Council meeting.  He said the precinct had issued 65 summonses for traffic violations on October 3 at Avenue J, Church Avenue, and other locations.

One place where a neighbor has noticed traffic problems is at the intersection of Chester Avenue and Louisa Street. CB 12 member Maggie Tobin has requested a 4-way stop sign at the intersection to forestall future collisions.

The last accident at the intersection, in which two people were involved—but, thankfully, no one was injured—took place in September. In August at Louisa and 36th Street, a cyclist was injured in a collision with a station wagon.

Maggie has also mentioned abandoned vans and cars left on her street, saying one was parked for two months in front of her home.

Out of Brooklyn’s 4,779 collisions in October, 271 were in the 66th Precinct, according to data from the NYPD’s precinct’s Motor Vehicle Collision Report and  Brooklyn’s, shown above. Increased public scrutiny of how the NYPD handles traffic safety has led some, including Transportation Alternatives, in a new report, The Enforcement Gap, to focus on speeding tickets and summons for “failure to yield” as an underutilized way to curb traffic collisions and injuries.

The 66th Precinct’s three most dangerous intersections (66 precinct information is on pp. 63–85 in Motor Vehicle Collision Report/Brooklyn Intersections or

) during October were Beverley Road at Ocean Parkway, with 7 collisions involving 15 people, and one motorist injured; Church Avenue at Ocean Parkway, where there were eight collisions involving 17 people but no injuries; and Cortelyou at Ocean Parkway, where four crashes affected 13 people and injured two.

Police say an elderly woman was walking in the at 11th Avenue and 49th Street crosswalk late at night in October when she was hit and tragically killed by an SUV–and although that corner is not usually a problem, Officer Cronin said, the precinct has requested better lighting and that the trees there be cut back in an effort to prevent future incidents.

DI Deddo also says the precinct is cracking down on unsafe biking. “The community wants the precinct to enforce the ‘no bikes on sidewalk’ regulation,” DI Deddo said. “We hear about it every day.”

In response, the 66 issued 20 summonses on October 9, and is now working with small business owners to explain the biking rules to them, including the confusing laws governing e-bikes. “They don’t understand they have to obey the same rules as all the other cyclists,” DI Deddo said.

What are your biggest concerns with traffic in the 66th Precinct? Let us know in the comments, and call 718-851-3414 to let Officer Cronin and Sergeant Charles know how to make our area safer for all.