On Friday afternoon around 2:30pm a cyclist identified by her friends simply as Serena (pictured) was the victim of a hit-and-run at the intersection of Wythe Avenue and South 4th Street in South Williamsburg. She’s currently in the ICU at Bellevue Hospital after suffering a broken pelvis and punctured lung, among other injuries.
Serena’s friends who blog at And Through a Day provided an update on Saturday that she is “awake, and on the mend” after having initially been reported unconscious and heavily sedated. The police are still looking for the driver, and anyone who may have seen something is encouraged to get in touch with them. Tragically, this sounds all too familiar. (Gothamist)
My prayers and thoughts go out to the family and friends of Serena.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a growing epidemic of motorist callousness and irresponsibility. And it sickens me each time I hear news of another motorist hitting a cyclist and leaving them in the road fighting for their lives. Serena is one of a growing number of cyclists who have been hit this year in the United States and the motorists have fled. This is simply deplorable and we must find a way to stop this behavior.
Our society has to make it very clear to motorists that it is unacceptable to hit a cyclist and leave him or her in the road to suffer. This cyclist is someone’s daughter. Someone’s friend. Someone loved by others.
How do we stop this behavior? One way to stop motorists from choosing to run is to make running less attractive. Judges, when dealing with hit and run cases, need to enforce the maximum penalties available to them by law. If the laws aren’t strong enough, we need to make them stronger. Motorists need to understand that if they run, an all-out effort will be made to bring them to justice. Here, we can offer rewards for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of violators. For this purpose, I would like to offer a reward of $500 for information leading to the arrest of the motorist who hit Serena.. I will only need confirmation from the South Williamsburg police department that the information provided lead to the arrest of the person(s) involved.
If you are the motorist who left Serna in the street to suffer, please turn yourself in to the police. If you know that motorist who did this, please turn him or her in to the police. Do the right thing.
These roads are “our” roads and we must learn to share our roads in ways that allow all users to travel safely. This kind of motorist behavior is terribly wrong and should concern all members of our communities and move us to act. If we don’t act, I fear the worse.
Joe Mizereck
Founder, The “3 Feet Please” Campaign
joe@3feetplease.com