Sarah Schick
Sarah Schick
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Age: 37
Location:
9th Street at 2nd Avenue
Brooklyn , NY
United States
Sarah was riding east on Ninth Street near Second Avenue in Brooklyn when a driver fatally crashed into her.
Her family and friends installed a ghost bike on that corner in her memory.
There is a GofundMe page to support her family.
From StreetsBlog
The family of a slain cyclist
is suing the city for $100 million, claiming municipal negligence led
to her death last month, when she was run over and killed by a truck
driver on a portion of Ninth Street that had not been made safe,
despite five previous deaths on the corridor in less than two decades.
Sarah
Schick, a 37-year-old mother of two, died on Jan. 10 when the driver
struck her as she biked east on an industrial section of Ninth Street
near Second Avenue, where cyclists are forced to share the lane with
cars and trucks — and where city officials have long known about safety
concerns for cyclists, her family charged.
“They knew and did
nothing,” Schick's widowed husband Maxime Le Munier said on Monday as he
announced the notice of claim against the city, the first step in a
wrongful death suit. "They have a responsibility in Sarah's death and
the previous deaths as well, and it needs to change."
The city
Department of Transportation added protected bike lanes to much of Ninth
Street in 2019, but left the strip unprotected for cyclists west of
Third Avenue — despite pressure at the time from advocates to ensure
that the improvements cover the complete stretch between Prospect Park
West and Smith Street.
Extending the bike lane west could have
prevented Schick's death, her lawyer Sam Davis said on Monday, adding
that the family is seeking "an enormous amount of compensation" because
the city failed "to do what is their responsibility to do: that is to
study what's a safe street, to design it as a safe street, to bring it
up to date to what the current needs are, to respond to the multiple
fatalities and injuries and collisions."
Schick’s death was just the latest tragedy on Ninth Street in several years to spur calls for a redesign.
In
2004, 11-year-old Victor Flores and 10-year-old Juan Angel Estrada were
struck and killed by a trucker on Ninth Street at Third Avenue, while
walking home from school. Fourteen years later, Dorothy Bruns hit and
killed 1-year-old Joshua Lew and 4-year-old Abigail Blumenstein.
Blumenstein’s mother, actress Ruthie Ann Miles, who was injured in the
crash, also later lost her unborn child.
At the time, in 2018,
advocates had met with DOT officials about the need to add safety
measures to all of Ninth Street, not just between the park and Third
Avenue. The local community board even sent a letter
to then-DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg demanding it come back to
the civic panel with a “plan to extend safety improvements west of 3rd
Avenue.” But DOT didn’t budge.
Le Munier, the bereaved widower,
said he learned of the previous fatalities on Ninth Street only after
his wife's death, and was horrified.
Now, he said, the city —
nearly 20 years later — must finally add protection for cyclists on all
of Ninth Street. DOT last month updated the signal timing at the
intersection to what's called a Leading Pedestrian Interval, which gives
pedestrians and cyclists time to cross before cars and trucks get a
green light.
“It’s unacceptable," Le Munier said. "She died
respecting every rule of the road, so the city needs to be safer for the
cyclists. That particular intersection and many others across the city
need to be made safer, and we don't want to see another tragedy like
this."
Sarah
Schick's husband, Maxime Le Mounier, during a press conference at the
site where she was killed on Monday. Photo: Julianne CubaSarah
Schick's husband, Maxime Le Mounier, during a press conference at the
site where she was killed on Monday. Photo: Julianne Cuba
Schick's
mother Evelyne recalled her daughter as a wonderful mom to two kids,
6-year-old Lena and 9-year-old Manon, and a leader at work at her
finance firm, which according to her LinkedIn, assessed "community
immediate and long-term needs for major infrastructure projects."
"Sarah
was so proud about her daughters," said Evelyne Schick. "She was really
busy with her job, she worked a lot of hours a day, she was so close to
her daughters. She was incredible because she can have a call with her
job and she was making apple pie with them trying to do everything
altogether.
"Every day, every second she's in my mind. I think
about her, I dream about her. There are no word to describe," the mother
added.
The family's pending suit follows a "die-in" by local
activists late last month, in which dozens of cyclists and allies laid
down on the road to protest the city's failure to make the area safer.
City
DOT responded by committing to redesign that portion of the roadway —
nearly two decades after its dangerous conditions were first observed by
the agency. But mere promises are not good enough, according to Davis —
who called on the city to take immediate action.
“Paint is not a protection. And promises don’t save lives. So what's different this time?” said Davis.
The city said in a statement to Streetsblog that it is reviewing the claim.
"Every life lost in crashes on city roads is precious and our thoughts are with the victim’s family," said a DOT spokesperson.
And
DOT previously told Streetsblog that it is working "24/7 to change the
culture to redesign the street, to hear from the community." The agency
says it will present a redesign of the roadway to the local community
board in the spring.
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Age: 37
Location:
9th Street at 2nd Avenue
Brooklyn , NY
United States
Sarah was riding east on Ninth Street near Second Avenue in Brooklyn when a driver fatally crashed into her.
Her family and friends installed a ghost bike on that corner in her memory.
There is a GofundMe page to support her family.
From StreetsBlog
The family of a slain cyclist
is suing the city for $100 million, claiming municipal negligence led
to her death last month, when she was run over and killed by a truck
driver on a portion of Ninth Street that had not been made safe,
despite five previous deaths on the corridor in less than two decades.
Sarah
Schick, a 37-year-old mother of two, died on Jan. 10 when the driver
struck her as she biked east on an industrial section of Ninth Street
near Second Avenue, where cyclists are forced to share the lane with
cars and trucks — and where city officials have long known about safety
concerns for cyclists, her family charged.
“They knew and did
nothing,” Schick's widowed husband Maxime Le Munier said on Monday as he
announced the notice of claim against the city, the first step in a
wrongful death suit. "They have a responsibility in Sarah's death and
the previous deaths as well, and it needs to change."
The city
Department of Transportation added protected bike lanes to much of Ninth
Street in 2019, but left the strip unprotected for cyclists west of
Third Avenue — despite pressure at the time from advocates to ensure
that the improvements cover the complete stretch between Prospect Park
West and Smith Street.
Extending the bike lane west could have
prevented Schick's death, her lawyer Sam Davis said on Monday, adding
that the family is seeking "an enormous amount of compensation" because
the city failed "to do what is their responsibility to do: that is to
study what's a safe street, to design it as a safe street, to bring it
up to date to what the current needs are, to respond to the multiple
fatalities and injuries and collisions."
Schick’s death was just the latest tragedy on Ninth Street in several years to spur calls for a redesign.
In
2004, 11-year-old Victor Flores and 10-year-old Juan Angel Estrada were
struck and killed by a trucker on Ninth Street at Third Avenue, while
walking home from school. Fourteen years later, Dorothy Bruns hit and
killed 1-year-old Joshua Lew and 4-year-old Abigail Blumenstein.
Blumenstein’s mother, actress Ruthie Ann Miles, who was injured in the
crash, also later lost her unborn child.
At the time, in 2018,
advocates had met with DOT officials about the need to add safety
measures to all of Ninth Street, not just between the park and Third
Avenue. The local community board even sent a letter
to then-DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg demanding it come back to
the civic panel with a “plan to extend safety improvements west of 3rd
Avenue.” But DOT didn’t budge.
Le Munier, the bereaved widower,
said he learned of the previous fatalities on Ninth Street only after
his wife's death, and was horrified.
Now, he said, the city —
nearly 20 years later — must finally add protection for cyclists on all
of Ninth Street. DOT last month updated the signal timing at the
intersection to what's called a Leading Pedestrian Interval, which gives
pedestrians and cyclists time to cross before cars and trucks get a
green light.
“It’s unacceptable," Le Munier said. "She died
respecting every rule of the road, so the city needs to be safer for the
cyclists. That particular intersection and many others across the city
need to be made safer, and we don't want to see another tragedy like
this."
Sarah
Schick's husband, Maxime Le Mounier, during a press conference at the
site where she was killed on Monday. Photo: Julianne CubaSarah
Schick's husband, Maxime Le Mounier, during a press conference at the
site where she was killed on Monday. Photo: Julianne Cuba
Schick's
mother Evelyne recalled her daughter as a wonderful mom to two kids,
6-year-old Lena and 9-year-old Manon, and a leader at work at her
finance firm, which according to her LinkedIn, assessed "community
immediate and long-term needs for major infrastructure projects."
"Sarah
was so proud about her daughters," said Evelyne Schick. "She was really
busy with her job, she worked a lot of hours a day, she was so close to
her daughters. She was incredible because she can have a call with her
job and she was making apple pie with them trying to do everything
altogether.
"Every day, every second she's in my mind. I think
about her, I dream about her. There are no word to describe," the mother
added.
The family's pending suit follows a "die-in" by local
activists late last month, in which dozens of cyclists and allies laid
down on the road to protest the city's failure to make the area safer.
City
DOT responded by committing to redesign that portion of the roadway —
nearly two decades after its dangerous conditions were first observed by
the agency. But mere promises are not good enough, according to Davis —
who called on the city to take immediate action.
“Paint is not a protection. And promises don’t save lives. So what's different this time?” said Davis.
The city said in a statement to Streetsblog that it is reviewing the claim.
"Every life lost in crashes on city roads is precious and our thoughts are with the victim’s family," said a DOT spokesperson.
And
DOT previously told Streetsblog that it is working "24/7 to change the
culture to redesign the street, to hear from the community." The agency
says it will present a redesign of the roadway to the local community
board in the spring.