Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Event

By Arielle E Young

Guest Contributor

At a time when motorcycle fatalities are on the rise, the Town of Greenburgh and families around the community have come together to spread awareness and answer the question that lingers in the wake of tragedy. How can we stay safe on the road?

           

 It’s no secret that most motorists aren’t looking for the small two-wheeled vehicle riding in the lane next to them. Motorcyclists can easily be missed in that two second glance at your rearview mirror, the three second stare at your side mirror or even the hastily made look back over your shoulder before you merge. Then it’s too late, another number has just been added to the statistic that continues to rise. Motorcyclists are losing their lives across the nation. 

 In 1997, the total number of motorcyclist deaths were counted at 2,056. In 2015, the number of deaths had risen to 4,693, more than double the amount of deaths according to the data from the Highway Loss Data Institute. 

 So – How do we stay safe on the road? Police Chief Christopher McNerney answered that question Sunday afternoon April 30, at the Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Event – created by the newly formed Motorcycle Task Force. The goal of the task force was to heighten awareness in a way that not only helped motorists to take notice of the issue but offer tools in dealing with it as well.

Town of Greenburgh motorcycle police officers provide demonstration.

“We plan to achieve this [awareness] by implementing a two-prong approach. Through education and enforcement.” Said Chief McNerney, the event sponsored motorcycle demonstrations by the Yonkers and Greenburgh police motorcycle units who initiated the “education prong” by explaining how to accomplish tight-cornering maneuvers as well as how to pick up a fallen bike. “I can do it, and I have screws in my back!” Said Police Motorcycle Instructor Daron Maran. Additionally, a Motorcycle Safety Foundation instructor narrated how to safely make an emergency stop on a bike and explained the benefits of both basic and advanced motorcycle riding courses.

This progressive event was a collaboration by Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and Chief McNerney after Arthur Hardy, the president of the PhatBoyz Motorcycle Club, New York Chapter, called out for something to be done after a death of a beloved member. 

 

Agnes Mebane, 80, testing out the Harley Kick-starter device.

Last August, Andre Garcia, 37, was riding his BMW motorcycle north on Hillside Avenue when he was struck and killed by an SUV making a turn. The fatal accident occurred right outside town hall during a meeting. Garcia was an EMS volunteer, loving son, brother and father to his nine-year-old son Andre Malik Garcia Jr. “The greatest memory that I have of Andre Garcia was on May 10, 2008 — the day we gave birth to our son,” said Celeste Weston, Andre Jr’s mother. “Words cannot express the look on his face when he laid eyes on his baby boy.” His sister, Cherie Garcia, also a member of the Phatboyz Motorcycle Club was a prominent voice among the strong willed 15-member task force that came together during the following eight months. 

Andre Garcia's motorcycle wreckage from his fatal accident

Over 250 motorcyclists were present at the event, showing their support and taking in the sight of the wrecked motorcycle belonging to Mr. Garcia. Sunday, marked the first of what is said to be an annual event in Greenburgh. This is a quintessential example of what can be accomplished when a community comes together and strives towards the same goal. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

Break-Ins Surge According to Email

 Even without receiving campaign emails from the corner office about what’s going on around Town, it’s no longer a secret that the Greenburgh Police Department has lessened their traffic control presence throughout the Town. It was most notably observed in several neighborhoods that used to have an officer in either a marked, unmarked or “shadow” vehicle sitting with a radar gun monitoring traffic, speeders and issuing tickets. The officers doing this have apparently been removed from these locations and either reassigned or perhaps even retired. While we don’t have a reason for this, we know the lack of traffic policing has not gone unnoticed.

Many residents have reached out to their civic associations to complain and find out why. The police department has admitted they are short-staffed. Quite possibly a personnel shortage might, in fact, be the reason. But we also read that the police department decided not to fill a vacant position to purchase several motorcycles. Clearly, this move would indicate the position that was open was not necessarily impactful or critical to the police on patrol. Or was it?

In one of his recent daily email campaign blasts, Mr Feiner wrote to residents that “Over a dozen unlocked vehicles were entered last night in the Joyce Road section of Hartsdale and property was stolen from within the cars. Additionally, one unlocked vehicle with a key left inside was stolen.  If each of these cars was locked this email would not have been written!” We doubt that. In fact, he would simply discuss something else. Such as, since the professionals he hired to repair the 9-11 memorial wall at Presser Park (formerly Webb Field) failed with their last attempt, he has enlisted the help of students to repair the wall and try to keep the individual tiles from falling off again.

He continues, “We are stepping up patrols and asking residents to help protect themselves by locking their vehicles at night. This crime of opportunity is plaguing many communities in Westchester and we believe the Greenburgh police have previously arrested the subjects responsible for last night’s crimes. Our officers have been in the Bronx most of the day following up.” What it sounds like is that a lack of patrols by our police might be what’s missing. Perhaps one of the new motorcycle police officers could do the patrol more stealthily than a regular patrol car?

Finally, he says, “The Greenburgh police department also has a neighborhood watch program. Neighbors who participate in the neighborhood watch efforts help the police look for suspicious activity. Let us know if you're interested in setting up a neighborhood watch program on your street. We can have a police officer meet with you and your neighbors at someone's home, provide neighbors with safety tips and advise you what action steps you could take to help us keep your neighborhood very safe.”

We are all for Neighborhood Watch programs and encourage the public to report any suspicious activity, regardless of a Neighborhood Watch or not. But Mr Feiner has cleverly switched the subject from a lack of action with the thefts in the Hartsdale neighborhood away from the real issue, that of a lack of police presence in all of our neighborhoods. Our police department is one of the best to be found anywhere. Sadly, the police chief answers to, and the department falls under Mr Feiner’s purview. 

While all of the rhetoric from the corner office will no doubt change the subject, Mr Feiner will offer to meet with anyone who is willing to talk to him. If he hadn’t already changed the subject prior to his arrival, he will do so once he is there. Then he will try to enlist the help of that person to assist him in creating a program to... We need a more visible police presence in all of our neighborhoods to thwart crime. We need speed monitoring and ticketing of those offenders who violate the law. If we have the police in our neighborhoods instead of in the Bronx or riding motorcycles, maybe we can prevent more crime here as get to know our police officers better. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Must Someone Else Die?

Many residents have indicated that speeding is an issue on their neighborhood streets. Occasionally, the police department will send a car to monitor and maybe even write a couple of tickets. But the fact is, there are too many streets, too many cars and too few police officers to stop them. We won’t bother discussing whether or not ticket quotas exist because most people already have an opinion about that. What we will discuss is that common, small infractions seem to either go unnoticed or unticketed because they are a nuisance to the police. Infractions such as illegal lane changes, using a cell phone while driving, failure to signal and so on are the ones routinely excused - unless if there's an accident. 

An officer we spoke to said he was doing speed control but only issued one ticket and about half a dozen warnings after radar-checking one particular neighborhood for an hour. He said he gave warnings to those speeding between the posted 30mph speed limit and up to 40mph. His hope was it might filter back to family and friends, with word ultimately getting back to them to slow them down. He also said that every neighborhood he does this in finds the residents are among the many speeding culprits! Either we don't have enough police officers doing traffic enforcement or enough resources for them - or both. It all comes down to money.

The Town’s Police Department budget is controlled by the Town Board. The Police Chief submits his budget request to Mr Feiner and his Town Board. Then the dance begins. Actually, the dance happens with all of the assorted Town Commissioners each year at budget time. The past several budgets have been trumpeted by Mr Feiner as being below the New York State 2% Tax Cap. Sadly, the public is being scammed by Mr Feiner’s well-honed lie originated in Albany and perpetuated here in Greenburgh that while we stayed under the 2% Tax Cap, our tax increase (this year) was 3.4%. Caveat emptor or willfully ignorant.

Regardless, the Police Chief submits what he needs and during the subsequent dance, perhaps even before and after it, Mr Feiner tells the department head to find something to cut so he can issue multiple press releases about how he found fat and made cuts in the budget. Then there's several other press conferences and releases about the budget being under the tax cap again, once upon a time Greenburgh was the 80th best place to live, essential services were maintained while staying under the 2% Tax Cap and so on. Publicity Paul will use a host of press releases, interviews and physical mailings. He'll also use the illegally held GBList. That's the email list that he and the Town are stalling the release of to Dorrine Livson of the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association after going to court and being court-ordered to give it to her under the Freedom of Information Law.

Mr Feiner's latest folly is a new traffic sign that announces how many tickets have been issued on a particular street supposedly for speeding. The issue at hand with this is that the Town is abdicating their responsibility for traffic enforcement by relying on a sign, crossed fingers and the hope that drivers will slow down. This very definitely compromises our residents and guests' safety and well-being. Also, Mr Feiner has over-advertised the new sign as his panacea for publicity, informing speeders town-wide that there are no cops nearby and speed away! So as drivers barrel on down the road,we have Publicity Paul (aka Pinocchio Paul, Posturing Paul, Federal Felon Feiner) to thank. If speeding is to be controlled by a sign, what's our next policing move? Another traveling sign to announce how many break-ins a particular neighborhood has had? By posting a sign and advertising there are no police nearby, will crime now rise?

Another conversation with a Town police officer said Feiner's sign publicity has started a firestorm of requests at police headquarters. Apparently, since Promising Paul has been asking for suggestions on its placement, the police have been inundated with requests for the sign. While we tip our hat to Preposterous Paul for another great deflection and latest the publicity coup, these requests indicate the seriousness of the speeding problem throughout the Town and the residents' desperation for relief. The Town Board has green-lighted almost every project for the last 22-years, the tenure of multiple Feiner Administrations, without having a coinciding traffic plan to control flow of traffic, speeding, parking and the like.

Similarly, many neighborhoods ask for speed bumps/humps, stop signs, rumble strips, even red light cameras to try to slow speeders. Each time the subject is broached with Town leaders and police representatives they are given a plethora of reasons as to why their requests cannot be delivered. They're told speed bumps can't be used to control traffic, they hold water and increase flooding on our already flood-prone streets. They're told you can't put in rumble strips, you can't have an officer doing speed control because of budget constraints. They're told they cannot install stop signs to control traffic. We can't do this and we can't do that? But what can they do? Apparently, more they tell us.

In one of his almost daily campaign mailings, Mr Feiner said the following:

"Speeding on South Road and North Road has always been a concern of residents of Parkway Gardens and Parkway Homes. The Greenburgh Town Board will vote on Wednesday, October 14th to accept the Police department’s recommendation to add an “all way” stop sign at South Road at the intersection of Jackson Place and at North Road at the intersection of Jackson Place.  Earlier this year there was a fatal hit and run accident on South Road. It’s the desire of the Greenburgh Police department and Town Board to make all of our roads safer and to improve the quality of life for residents. Greenburgh Police Chief Chris McNerney and his traffic safety officers deserve our thanks for their follow up on this important safety initiative and for meeting with community members prior to making this recommendation."

It appears that stop signs can be installed to control traffic flow. This is exactly what residents from several neighborhoods have been asking for. It's just so sad that a death had to occur for this to happen. The real point however, is while the stop signs may help control traffic in the future, would they have prevented this unfortunate death? Must someone else die before we see the installation of stop signs, traffic lights, controlled pedestrian crossing areas and other solutions? 

With elections approaching, this will be one of the best pieces of campaign fodder Mr Feiner has dreamed up. He will have the signs installed, send out multiple press releases, have several press conferences at the sight, posture about it at numerous Town Board meetings and lament that they cannot do this in more neighborhoods because he's limited in spending due to the NYS 2% Tax Cap - which his Town Board could vote to ignore. He'll continue on that he is committed to safety and improving our neighborhoods. Look for another sign saying that since the stop signs were installed, "X" amount of tickets have been written and "X" amount of lives have been saved.

There are serious traffic issues growing with every development Mr Feiner and his Town Board approve. Coincidentally, corresponding traffic control is noticeably absent. As our budget resources dwindle, our police department is being pushed to do more with less. Let's see how many more of the signs Mr Feiner plans to distribute throughout our Town affecting your safety and the safety of your families and visitors. Must someone else die to get action throughout our Town? This has to change. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.