I don't understand all this speeding going east on Grand Street. Are they all late for work at Goldman Sachs?

A few years ago someone crashed into the park at Washington and Grand.

And the pedestrian crossing lights are awful. If no one pushes the button, the light won't change. It stays red. And 99% of the people don't push the button.

Ahh, Grand Street. Glad the city turned that into a 4 lane speedway.

Not serious solution: release hundreds of deer. Ever see a car hit one or a buck? The vehicle doesnt win.

Seriously though this is a policing issue. Ive seen police pull people over for traffic violations. From turning the wrong way to merging to close to the person in back of them. There needs to be more patrols.

Pray for the families of the victims. Very sad. Herman Chandler on the other hand should be used as a speed bump on Grand St.

May Herman Chandler rot in hell for eternity.

Article now in Star-Ledger, identifying victims and perp.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012 ... ed_in_jersey_city_af.html

absolutely horrible and no surprise to anyone who walks around downtown JC. Drivers are horrible and JC encourages their bad driving with wider roads, no speed bumps, too few lights/signs, etc. Now several innovent people died because the city refuses to address a situation that any 4th grader could easily identify.

They at least put up a 4 way stop sign last week at the intersection of 10th and Coles. Another very popular accident area.

Fulop, I know your up against a moron brigade when it comes to car traffic policy but this has to be used to the fullest extent possible to shame said morons into agreeing to make this area more pedestrian/safe driver friendly...

My wife was hit by a car that was stopped at a stop sign with a pedestrian crosswalk a few weeks ago. She thanked the car for stopping (because in this city you expect them to stop and roll) and next thing you know she is on the windshield of his car. He was looking fiercely to the right to gun it across the one way street and never saw her coming from the left, or her acknowledgement of him. She hit the front, moved her body so she could roll on to his windshield, rolled off, hit his window with her hands as he gunned it out of there and he THEN saw her as he slowed down to see what the fuss was about. He stopped, waved sorry and sped off. If she wasn't in shape she wouldn't have had the strength to move up and over, instead she would have been under. Still, one more foot over and she would have be UNDER his car regardless. People witnessed this and NO ONE HELPED. She picked herself up and kept walking, uninjured. This happened in Hoboken at Bloomfield and First.

She was most shaken by the fact no one even asked if she was okay or that the motorist didn't exit his vehicle to check on her. She didn't get his license plate because he sped off too quickly. Yes this can happen anywhere, but the reality of it is, it happens way more here. The odds are great we'll all have this situation happen in this city eventually. What we decided in this situation is that it's time to move. And move we will.

This is horrible and really scary. I drive on that part of Grand Street every day at least two times a day. Whenever we have to cross Grand Street to walk to the park or whatever, I am always so afraid someone is going to mow us down.

I live on Grove between York and Grand and saw the aftermath when I arrived home last night. I realize things like this happen all too frequently, but because it occurred so close to my home, I'm especially shaken in this instance.

I think some of the analysis written in earlier posts is spot-on, and there are many things that can be done to improve safety on this stretch of road.

All of that said, the driver of the SUV was clearly acting in such a way that no reasonable amount of enforcement or traffic-calming measures likely would have helped. Perhaps speedbumps would have prevented this, but by that logic, there is no single stretch of road in JC that shouldn't have them.

[rant[It's a disturbing fact of life, but we are surrounded by mentally unstable people who don't think the rules apply to them. I regularly see people take left turns in front of oncoming traffic (you know, right at the moment when the light turns green), even when they would have only had to wait for one or two cars to pass. I see people texting in their cars all the time. Parking in front of crosswalks...whatever, you get the idea. The car culture in this city (state, country) is totally #OOPS#ed up. Pro-tip: if you ever kill a bicyclist with your car, just say you didn't see him/her...you'll be off the hook and people will feel sorry for you for the psychological trauma you suffered. The car culture here is such that you're basically allowed to hit things/people with your car, provided you assert that you didn't see them. People are so #OOPS#ing aggressive and selfish while commanding their two-ton vehicles. Absolutely no respect for how the profound kinetic energy at their fingertips can erase human life.[/rant]

Here's what Newark is trying to do to address dangerous crossings at Broad Street.

http://pbsvideo.njn.net/video/2183288216

Ugh, awful. Imagine walking down the street and having your life end, just like that. Or sitting in the back of a cab, and suddenly you are engulfed in flames within seconds, fighting for your life. It really makes you think.

Crossing both Grand Street and Columbus as a pedestrian is a treacherous task. I HATE how both roads have been widened. It is incredibly dangerous. The "walk" signs/green lights crossing these streets are far and few between. And what is the deal with crossing Columbus at Grove Street? The walk sign is almost never on, you just have to look both ways and make a run for it.

It's shameful, and it's a REAL shame that 2 lives have been lost. How many more innocent lives will be lost until the imbeciles in the planning department wake up? Seriously.

It was an absolutely horrible scene. I pulled up minutes after it happened. The road itself was burning from the skid of the cars. The bystanders that tried to help deserve a lot of praise. The cab was completely engolfed in flames and yet they risked their own lives to try and pull the passengers out of the car.
It took a long time for JCFD to show up. Yes, they are two blocks away but when I passed, the fire engine was not there. It must have been out on another call.
This irresponsible driving has to stop.

Woodstock: you're probably right. I made the assumption based on the CNN video that someone posted. When I first looked at the video, it appeared that the offending SUV in the foreground had more damage on the driver's side than the passenger side. But now that I look at it again, it looks pretty head on.

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+1

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Denibleu.... You assumption about the impact is wrong. It was a direct front end to back end hit. The SUV was probably going 70+ mph, the cab actually appeared to be going the speed limit. I have this from one of the few people who witnessed the accident . The SUV then careened out of control down grand street crashing into several poles, hence the damage.

Horrible.

My fiance works on Grand St, and told me about this on her way home last night. I will keep the victims in my prayers.

So it was the passenger of the cab and a pedestrian that was killed? Driver of the SUV, was he drunk, or just stupid?

I read somewhere that it took some time before JCFD and paramedics arrived on the scene. Can any eye witnesses attest to that? Being that both JCFD and the hospital are on Grand St, one would think they'd get there pretty quick.

It is every man and woman for themselves on Grand. Drivers just do not give a sh#t. Short of having speed bumps at every intersection, they will continue to not give a sh#t. They should have left the craters in the road.

Having really wide streets with multiple lanes is a recipe for disaster. Reminds me of Hylan Blvd in Staten Island. Accident after accident....death after death. Millions and millions of dollars spent trying to resolve the issues...meanwhile the only true resolution is keeping speeds down.

Same problem with Grand as well as Columbus. Speed is the problem. Poorly designed traffic patterns and poorly placed signs can be managed easily if people drove slower.

As for this accident, anyone who was involved with the planning, design and construction of these roads in their current state as well as anyone who could have made Grand St. a more safely designed street should be prosecuted for manslaughter.

If you are driving fast enough to cause another car to burst into flames and be propelled several feet and you still cannot get control of your own car then you deserve to be shot there on the spot. The speed limit should be 20mph on every residential street. I have said it before that it was going to take "horrible death" before the city does anything. Now I suppose we will see that stupid flashing 25mph sign posted on that corner for a few weeks. The cops have stepped up enforcement at times on Marin Blvd near the Tunnel but we need a city wide effort to make OUR streets safe again. Columbus and Grand have become like suburban freeways and it's out of control.
BTW, to some of you other posters, if the car behind you can't handle you driving the speed limit then F*** them. They can just calm down and wait a bit.

I would be curious to see the number of accidents on Grand Street east of Marin Blvd, where it becomes a one lane street in a residential neighborhood, compared to west of Marin.

Adding the parking back to the south side did not calm traffic because the city configured the layout to keep two lanes. Basically the city treated it as a parking issue for the convenience of residents and the storefronts on Grand, when that was never what the main concern was about.

This is just my opinion, but I don't think eliminating lanes on each side of the street is going to make the street safer. In fact, as a previous poster pointed out, the parking that remains on the south side of the street only creates more problems, as it shifts the eastbound lanes toward the north at a weird angle and forces drivers to swerve toward the median as they approach the light at Barrow.
There are definitely problems with the traffic pattern on that stretch of Grand, but having two lanes on each side is not one of them. There needs to be more clear signage, right after Barrow, letting drivers know that the left lane is for turning only as they approach Grove. The driver in the SUV was probably in the left lane as he approached the light at Grove and tried to swerve around the cab (possibly at a high speed to cut in front of someone in the right lane). You can tell this by the damage on the SUV, and the fact that the cab was propelled toward the north side of the street.
The other major issues are people stopping illegally in front of the hospital and school to pick up passengers, and the whole traffic mess in front of the McDonald's shopping center.

This was a horrific accident, and many people in the neighborhood have long objected to the city's traffic planning on Grand Street.

Grand Street is essentially treated by drivers as a multi lane highway. You can't even keep to the speed limit there. If you do you are potentially impeding traffic flow because so many other people speed.

A few years ago the City chose to removethe parking from both sides of Grand to open up traffic flow. Several people in Gulls Cove and Liberty Harbor vehemently objected to this because of the danger. In response, the City ultimately put some of the parking spots back on the south side of the street, but that still has not addressed the issue.

I have contacted councilman Fulop about this and he has been responsive. But a lot more people need to contact all actors and insist that changes be made.

When several of us initially objected to the opening up of Grand, city officials insisted that it was necessary because studies showed that with the growth of Liberty Harbor, there would be significant traffic on Grand. Liberty Harbor is not going to be significantly expanding any time soon, so that point carries no weight. But we have always felt that the city prioritized commuter traffic to the tunnel and the waterfront over the well being of pedestrian safety.

I would be very interested in hearing suggestions as to how this situation can be improved. I walk my child to school and have to cross Grand every day, and I am frightened by the prospect of when she gets older and is ready to walk to school by herself.

A few thoughts that I have, which I would admit are not magic bullets....

1. Put parking back on all sides for the entire length of Grand. Make it a one lane street each way with a turning lane.

2. Reconfigure the traffic lights so that the lights and walk signs stay green going North-South for longer periods of time. In addition, make the change to Walk automatic and not contingent on pressing the button.

3. Put a moratorium on any action to open up Jersey Avenue through Liberty State Park.

4. This one may be tricky, but further narrow the streets through the installation of a bike lane. My concern here is that because of the driving culture this would actually be more dangerous.

5. Perhaps another possibility would be the installation of a center median down Grand in the style of Ocean Parkway.

I would like to hear what others have to say as well.

Joshua

Speeding on Grand, headed east towards the waterfront. Impact occurred right after the first crosswalk at grand and grove street intersection. Cab immediately burst into flames upon impact and the crash launched the cab diagonally across to thenorth side of grand street past the Taqueria building. The other car went out of control but stayed on the south side of grand street, took out the light by the second crosswalk and then continued further down grand to crash into another pole in front of the basketball courts at the boys and girls club (this is where the pedestrian was hit and killed/ murdered.)

Happened around 9 ... entire area was awash in emergency lights. The crash took out the traffic lights, too. The speeding person had to be on Grand, Grove comes to a T and a rear-end wouldn't make sense on Grove.


Edit: And that hook in the road on Grand right after the hospital going east doesn't help these NASCAR wannabes, either. No one is ready for that sudden swerve to the left; it puts oncoming vehicles at risk because the east-bound left laner over-compensates and swerves into oncoming traffic.

Was the driver speeding on Grand, or Grove? At what time did this occur?

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It's TWO innocent people, potentially three. The cab driver was severely burned and in critical condition. Haven't heard any updates on his status. Was the Gull's Cove resident in the cab or the pedestrian? These poor people! I believe a chef from Abondonza Tratorria (along with others from that restaurant or Taqueria) tried to pull the passenger in the cab out of the car window but they couldn't get him through. Just an awful thing to happen.

He killed an innocent man who was on his way home to Gull's Cove. I hope he gets the maximum sentence as well.

What a horrible accident. Know a guy who witnessed it. The person who caused the accident was probably attempting to flee the scene but he actually did not. He was walking around, almost like he was a witness. My friend was standing right next to him at one point, as he waiting to give his statement to the police. The police went up to him and asked him if he was the driver. He denied it, was acting all weird and then one of the cops put his hand on the guys chest, felt his heartbeat racing. They went ino the car, he had left his wallet inside, and then identified that it was him and he was cuffed immediately.

Hope the mayor and Fulop are paying attention. Just a matter of time before this was about to happen. Something needs to be done about enforcing the speed limit on grand street. This wasn't even a peak time for this road and if it happened an hour or two earlier, even more people could have been hurt or killed.

Hope the guy who did this gets a maximum sentence for his crime. Our thoughts go out to the victims and their families.

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-733223?ref=feeds%2Flatest

having a hard time shaking this one. driver fled the scene but is now in custody.