Call

Blog

Law
02

Blog

Breaking News: Killer of Olga Cook to Plead Guilty to All Charges

The New Jersey man charged with felony manslaughter for striking and killing cyclist Olga Cook in the bike lane on the West Side Highway has agreed to plead guilty to all charges.

In June of 2016, the 26-year-old driver, from Newark, was heading southbound on West St. in his 2011 Ford truck around 7:50 p.m. when he made a right turn onto Chambers St. and struck and killed Olga who was lawfully cycling in the bike lane. Olga was taken to Bellevue Hospital where she later died.

The driver was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, failure to yield to a pedestrian and driving while impaired — the latter because he tested .062 on an alcohol test at the scene of his arrest, according to a police spokesman.

An off-duty MTA officer, later identified as Otis Noboa in news reports, detained the driver at Warren St. and North End Ave. in Battery Park City around 8 p.m. According to police, he found the driver sitting stoically in his white truck.

Before a pre-trial hearing was scheduled to begin on January 25, 2017, in New York Criminal Court, our office was advised by the District Attorney that the defendant had agreed to plead guilty to the top charge of Leaving the Scene of an Accident (felony), Criminally Negligent Homicide (felony), and Driving While Impaired.. It is unclear if the Defendant will also plead guilty to NYC’s “Right of Way Law” 19-190. Sentencing is presently scheduled for February 22, 2017, and we will keep you posted.

While the criminal trial has been pending, our office has filed our intent to pursue a claim against the City of New York and the State of New York for the negligent design and configuration of the intersection, a condition well known to these agencies.

Over the last 5 years, there have been a reported 17 crashes at the location leading to serious injuries, several that involved southbound vehicles turning over the bike path. Since the happening of this crash and the filing of this claim, the NYC Dept. of Transportation has reconfigured the crash location by adding high-visibility crosswalk markings and replacing missing bollards. In addition, the City has added an additional signal phase for traffic lights at the intersection, so that motorists turning onto Chambers St. from West St. will never share the right of way with pedestrians and bicyclists crossing Chambers St.

It is our hope that this claim will force these agencies to address the balance of the West Side Hwy crossovers that remain dangerous to cyclists, pedestrians, and other vulnerable road users.

Photo Credit: Olga’s Path

Comments

Ann Groninger Jan 04, 2024

Many of our cycling clients find themselves having to interact with the criminal justice system. Typically, it’s because the driver who hits them (or their family member) is charged with a crime or traffic offense. Occasionally bicyclists themselves are charged with traffic offenses! Every state’s criminal laws are different, but there is a lot of […]

Read More
Bike Crash Road Defect Georgia
Peter Wilborn Jun 14, 2023

We recently shared the story of a trial victory from the State of Texas where a bicyclist was injured due to a defect in a road maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation. Texas Road Defect   We now can tell the story of another huge win in a road defect case, this time from […]

Read More
Road defect dangerous to cyclists
Charlie Thomas Mar 14, 2023

Recently, attorneys with the Bike Law network took a case to a trial against a titan of a defendant: the Texas Department of Transportation. TxDOT was represented by the Attorney General’s Office, one of Texas’ largest legal teams. We had a great client, but it was a tough case to prove. So tough, in fact, […]

Read More
bike path charlotte
Ann Groninger Jan 13, 2023

  2023 got off to a rough start for Charlotte, North Carolina, particularly in the context of road safety. Within about a week, we lost a young woman who was riding her bicycle, a pedestrian killed in the same area of town, and four people were killed in a car wreck on I-85 in the […]

Read More
North Carolina Bike Crash
Ann Groninger Dec 06, 2022

Unless you’re a very recent follower of ours, you’ve heard us talk before about “contributory negligence.” To recap: “pure contributory negligence” is the law in North Carolina and only 3 other states (Alabama, Virginia, Maryland). In pure contributory negligence states, if a person is injured by someone else’s fault and the injured person contributes even […]

Read More
Is It Illegal to Ride Your Bike on the Sidewalk bikelaw
Peter Wilborn Aug 01, 2022

The laws dictating whether you can ride your bike on the sidewalk differ depending where you live. Different states have different laws on this matter, and local ordinances also vary. Let’s take a look at the legal framework behind various state laws related to cycling on sidewalks. The laws of sidewalk-riding can be very complicated […]

Read More
Ebike crash
Bruce Hagen Apr 26, 2022

DRIVER ON METH KILLS 17 YEAR OLD BICYCLIST, BARROW COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY REFUSES TO CHARGE DRIVER WITH FELONY.   On August 23, 2020, at approximately 8:40pm, 17-year old Obianuju Osuegbu was on her way home from her summer job working at a grocery store. She had earned enough money that summer to buy herself a […]

Read More
Stop as Yield
Brian Weiss Apr 25, 2022

Finally, “Stop As Yield” (the much sought after common sense traffic law for bicyclists) is coming to Colorado in 2022, likely July 1st.   Stop as Yield, aka the “Safety Stop” After the Governor Polis signs the law and the Safety Stop becomes effective, anyone who rides a bicycle or scooter on public roads will […]

Read More
Contributory Negligence
Ann Groninger Apr 25, 2022

It took losing at trial and a long appellate process, but it ended in a blow to contributory negligence in North Carolina. We just won an appeal on a bicycle crash case that happened in 2016 and came to us in 2018. The case went to trial during the spring of 2021. Our client was […]

Read More
Load More