Could have been prevented: Accident #67

Friday, October 24, about 11 a.m. Accident #66, like all the rest, could have been prevented with a bit of caring by our dear pols.

Accident #66

Early Monday morning -- October 20, 2008, about 8 a.m. Another accident that should have been prevented.

Accident #65: Once again, preventable but not prevented

Saturday Night Live: Sat., Oct. 18, 11:30 p.m. Once again, preventable but not prevented.

Accident 64: ambulances, patrol car, damages

Monday, Oct. 13, 3:20 p.m. Yet another accident. Preventable but not prevented. When will they attend to this crash-point access ramp ?

Accident #63

Sunday, October 12, 2008, 2:40 p.m. A beautiful fall day, but here is one more accident. Is anyone watching ? Is anyone listening ?

Accident #62

Saturday, October 4, 4 p.m. This is the 61st time that I have observed this kind of accident since last fall. Does anyone care ?

Accident #61

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008, 11:45 p.m.

Accident #60

Here is the 60th accident. Tuesday, Sept. 23, about 6:45 p.m. It's really tedious trying to comment. Basically, it's a matter of negligence and neglect by governments on all levels.

Accident #59

As witnessed by Rita Cohn:

Accident at same spot, today, Monday Sept. 15, 2008, 8:40 a.m. Tow truck pulls in to red sedan and grey sedan behind it.

Accident #58

Here we are, Sunday, September 7, 2008. High noon. Guess what, another accident at the same familiar place.

What are the authorities doing about this relentless series of accidents ? Well, I am too polite to say this in English, but the Spanish term is nada.

It is now more than a year ago since I filed a Freedom of Information Law request to the NYC Police Department for accident figures at this spot. So far I've heard nada. I phone them every so often, and, in effect, I always get this answer: Do you think you're the only one who wants attention from us ?

Accident #57, Thurs.,Aug.28, 2:30 p.m.

Baby Caught in Accident # 56

A babe in arms is caught in this accident shortly after midnight, Sunday, Aug. 3, ab. 12:30 a.m. The politicians don't seem to care. The BQE is a state function. But this probably wasn't the baby of any of the Albany politicians, so why should they care.

Accident #55

Tues., July 22, 2008, about 11:40 p.m

Accident #54, Thursday,July 17, 2008, about 10:30 a.m.

Accident # 53

Thursday, July 10, 2008. About 10 p.m.

Accident # 52, Wednesday, July 9, 2008, 7:45 p.m.

This time it's a tractor-trailer collision. Obviously, as in all accidents, there is cost to the vehicle owners and their insurance companies. But there is also a huge cost to the public: insurance rates, police time, hospitalizations ... Do our legislators care ? Does the governor ?

Monday, June 2, 2008, 11:20 p.m. ACCIDENT # 51

# 50, BLACK FRIDAY, Second Accident of Day

Friday, May 23, 2008, 9:15 p.m.

# 49, Fri., 5/23/08, 2:45 p.m.

Accident #48

Thursday, May 15, 2008, about 3 p.m. This one seems to have been a collision between an Access-A-Ride bus and a black limousine. At the usual spot.

Accident #47: Saturday, April 26,12:30 p.m.

This one appears to be a collision between a police vehicle and a civilian automobile

Accident #46, Thurs.,4/15/08, 3:55 p.m.

This one took place in my absence. It was witnessed by Rita as follows:

3:55 p.m., Thurs., 4/17: Two grey sedans, two drivers standing outside of them apparently arguing, at the usual accident spot.

4:25 p.m.: cars and drivers still there, drivers standing outside of their cars, using cell phones.

Accident # 45, Sunday 12:02 a.m., April 13, 2008

Middle of the night. How would you like to be part of this accident ? Tell the Governor !

Accident #44

Same spot. Accident #43, Friday, April 11, 1:15 p.m.

Accident # 43

Wednesday, 4/9/08, 10 p.m.

Second accident this evening !

And here is Accident # 41. It is the second accident, at the very same spot, this evening. And please remember that I cannot watch the spot all the time. I can only document the accidents that I happen to see. Time for this one: about 11:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

Accident #41

And here, once again, the t-bone: accident #40, Tuesday, April 8, about 8:45 p.m. When will the State see fit to do something ? Traffic lights, though they may slow traffic a bit, would seem to be the most feasible solution.

Third accident of day

Accident #39; third in day. Monday, April 7, 2008, about 3:30 p.m. This one involved at least one school bus. Mr. Governor, I know you're new on the job, but ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING ????

Accident #39

Just a couple of hours after the previous accident, here is #38. About 3:10 p.m., Monday, April 8, 2008.

Accident #38

Monday, April 7, 2008, ab. 12:30 p.m. Yet another t-bone accident, same spot. The installation of traffic signals would seem to be the most practical solution for avoiding this constant mayhem.

Another accident

Accident # 36. Friday, April 4, 2008, 10 a.m.

New Mayhem on the BQE; Accident # 36

Wednesday, March 26, 2008, 9:30 p.m. This appears to be a multi-vehicle event. Same t-bone.

Accident #35

Thursday, March 20, 2008, 12:35 p.m. Same spot, same t-bone. A system of traffic lights, controlled with sophisticated software to regulate traffic, seems the most cost-effective way to stop these constant accidents at this t-bone and at the many others on the BQE here and the FDR Drive in Manhattan.

Accident #34

Observed by my wife Rita in my absence:

Wednesday, March 12, 2008.

12:30 p.m. Immediately past the t-bone entrance. Huge semi stalled there, with grey station wagon behind it. Police car arrives, man in brown suit talks to police officer. Police car leaves.

12:50 p.m. Two men with tow truck appear to prepare to remove the grey station wagon, but do not do so.

1 p.m. The truck drives away. Now another car, a black sedan, is visible; it had been behind the truck. This car also drives away.

1:03 p.m. The grey station wagon drives away.

Accident # 33: March 8, 2008, about 3:20 p.m

I was away from March 3 to March 9. My wife observed the following on Mar. 8:

Two vehicles stopped at t-bone entrance; the first a dark purple station wagon, the other a green sedan. Three men are outside these vehicles, speaking with one another.

New Incident, Mon., 3/3/08

New apparent accident at the t-bone, today, Monday, 3/3/08, about 10:30 a.m.

Accident #31: Second accident of day

Here is the second accident of this Leap Year Day at the usual t-bone site. This picture was taken at 6 p.m., Friday, February 29, 2008.

Accident #30: Three-Car Pile-Up, Fri.,Leap Year Day, 3 p.m.

Chinese scholars propose use of traffic lights for highway entrance ramps

Highway ramp control via fuzzy logic Shing-Fei Lee You-Wei Teng Wen-June Wang Dept. of Electr. Eng., Nat. Central Univ., Chung-Li; This paper appears in: Fuzzy Systems, 2000. FUZZ IEEE 2000. The Ninth IEEE International Conference on Publication Date: 7-10 May 2000 Volume: 1, On page(s): 274-278 vol.1 Meeting Date: 05/07/2000 - 05/10/2000 Location: San Antonio, TX, USA ISBN: 0-7803-5877-5 References Cited: 15 INSPEC Accession Number: 6622913 Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/FUZZY.2000.838671 Posted online: 2002-08-06 23:07:08.0

Abstract Utilizes the fuzzy control concept to design a highway on-ramp control (HORC) such that the traffic light in the on-ramp works well to maintain the smoothness of the traffic flow on the highway. The HORC includes a fuzzy decision base (FDB) to estimate the probability of the light change and a decision function to decide the change making of the light. In this HORC, we only need one sensor to measure the speed and the speed change rate of the vehicles on the highway. Our simulation shows that the HORC has a good performance

Accident # 29: Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Another accident at the t-bone. Reminder: I can only report accidents that my wife or I see, so there are obviously quite a few that go unreported on this blog.

I wasn't home for today's incident, so I give my wife Rita's report. She does not use the SLR, so there is no picture. Here is her report:

12:35 p.m. Feb. 27, '08
red car bumps into gray station wagon waiting to get on BQE; both pull over, check damage to rear. red car makes a call; g.s.w. keeps checking through hatchback (people inside ?), kicks back of car several times, closes back.
12:56 police car appears, drives away ..
1:03 another p0l. car appears, drives away
1:16 tow truck arrives, parks in "triangle"
1:17 2 police cars, one leaves.

Saturday, Feb. 23., 2008, 5:15 p.m.

Accident #28 since Aug. 23, 2007 at this spot. When, oh when my Lord, will the powers that be take action ?

The Brooklyn Paper Covers the T-Bone

This week's Brooklyn Paper is covering our t-bone. It's worse than even I thought ! Do read this article.

Traffic Lights Can Save Lives

Photo by Kirst0714

As other jurisdictions have learned, traffic lights on the highway can save lives. If it's too expensive to provide a proper acceleration ramp, it's always possible to provide safe access through the use of traffic lights.