A state appeals court has opened the door to a wrongful-death trial against the City of New York over the 2016 death of cyclist Olga Cook on the Hudson River Greenway. Cook was riding through the crossing at West Street and Chambers Street, a spot longtime riders and advocates have long flagged as hazardous, when she was fatally struck. The ruling allows her family to argue in court that the city’s traffic-signal timing created a dangerous conflict that helped cause her death.
Appeals court lets suit proceed
On Wednesday, the Appellate Division ruled that the city can be sued because it had control over the timing of the traffic signals at the intersection for at least a year before the crash, lifting earlier obstacles to a civil trial, according to amNewYork. The lawsuit claims that a single-phasing signal pattern gave cyclists on the greenway and turning drivers green lights at the same time, setting up the deadly conflict that killed Cook.
Crash, criminal case and fixes
On June 11, 2016, driver Samuel Silva turned from southbound West Street onto Chambers Street and hit Cook as she traveled north on the greenway. Silva later pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene and received a sentence of 1⅓ to 4 years in prison, according to Streetsblog. After the crash, the city installed a dedicated turn signal, bollards and high-visibility pavement markings at the intersection, although advocates say many other locations along the West Side remain risky.
Plaintiff's case zeroes in on timing
Travis Cook’s attorney, Daniel Flanzig, told amNewYork that data showed 56 crashes at the intersection between 2010 and 2014 that injured 16 cyclists, and that the city failed to time the signals to “eliminate conflicts and meet national standards.” The appeals court found those allegations sufficiently plausible to avoid dismissal, allowing the case to move forward into discovery and toward a potential jury trial.
What comes next
With the appeals ruling in place, the lawsuit will head into state-court scheduling and discovery, where the Cook family will be able to seek evidence on signal timing, control and design. The City Law Department has argued in court papers that the State is responsible for the intersection’s design, while the plaintiff contends the city’s lengthy control over the signal timing makes it liable. The family’s lawyer has said he hopes the case reaches trial in New York Supreme Court within a year and that any verdict could involve significant damages. The decision may also ramp up calls for broader changes to signal timing and phasing along the West Side.
