By Julie Shapiro
Nina Sosa had just stepped into the crosswalk at the intersection of Duane and Greenwich Sts. on the afternoon of June 9 when she saw an SUV speeding toward her in reverse.
As Sosa, 26, turned the stroller she was pushing to protect 3-year-old Hannah Dietz who was riding inside, the SUV slammed into it, jarring Hannah and scaring her brother, Graham, 5 , who was walking beside.
The children wailed as Sosa, their nanny, checked for broken bones and onlookers called 911.
Sosa and Graham were unhurt and Hannah escaped with only a few scrapes and bruises, but Sosa and the children’s parents are upset at what they see as an entirely avoidable near-tragedy. There is no stop sign or traffic light at Duane St. to slow traffic traveling south on Greenwich St.
“Why should we have to wait for something serious like this to happen?” Sosa asked.
The community has long agitated for a light and walk signal at the intersection of Greenwich and Duane Sts., which sees a heavy flow of strollers as nannies and parents shuttle children to and from Washington Market Park.
The city Department of Transportation last examined the intersection about a year ago and found that it did not meet federal standards for installing a light, said Craig Chin, an agency spokesperson.
Chin said the city would not consider overriding federal standards unless there were five preventable accidents in a 12-month period. Chin said the recent accident did not count as preventable because the SUV was traveling in reverse, which is not allowed regardless of whether there is a traffic light.
Steven Dietz, Hannah and Graham’s father, disagreed with that assessment.
“If a light is there, it gives drivers an instinct that they can’t back up,” Dietz said. “It seems so simple. It seems so straightforward.”
On a recent afternoon, many of the patrons at Washington Market Park agreed that the intersection was unsafe.
“They should put a light there,” said Ronny Levine, who lives in Tribeca and was sitting on a bench outside the park with her young grandsons. “Cars come too fast down Greenwich.”
If the city won’t install a traffic light or a stop sign, they should at least post a speed limit sign with flashing lights, said Jennifer, a nanny who takes a pair of brothers to the park almost every day. The heavy flow of traffic that travels quickly can make it hard to cross the street, said Jennifer, who did not want to give her last name without permission from her employer.
“You have to wait and wait and wait,” she said of crossing Greenwich St.
Leslie Abbey, Hannah and Graham’s mother, said cars on Greenwich St. even speed up as they approach Reade St. because they are trying to catch a green light at Chambers St.
Peter Braus, co-chairperson of Community Board 1’s Tribeca Committee, told the board about the June 9 accident last week, and the committee vowed to make the D.O.T. listen to their demands for a light. Carole DeSaram, chairperson of the committee, said she has written resolutions about the intersection before, to no avail, and that it was time to go higher up the D.O.T.’s chain of command.
Noel Jefferson, a C.B. 1 member, recently saw a different SUV back through the same intersection, so the driver could snag an illegal parking space at a fire hydrant. Jefferson wants to see speed bumps at the intersection.
After the June 9 accident, the driver of the SUV stayed at the scene of the accident and was very apologetic, Sosa said. He was not arrested or charged with a crime.
“He was backing up really fast,” said Graham, a wiry boy with bright orange hair who just lost his first tooth. “He was not nice.”
At the time of the accident, Sosa and the children were on their way to a picnic for Hannah’s class at the Washington Market School. When they returned to the park this week for Graham’s class picnic, Sosa took a different route from the children’s home on Hudson St.: She crossed Greenwich St. at N. Moore St., where there is a traffic light.
Abbey, the children’s mother, heard that community activists thought it would take a serious disaster before the D.O.T. would reconsider adding a light.
“It seems like we’ve come pretty close,” she said. “The time has come.”
Julie@DowntownExpress.com
Transportation analyst Charles Komanoff argues the Duane St. crossing at Greenwich St. is a fatal accident waiting to happen in a Downtown Express Talking Point, Page 21.
