NYC pols: Reckless driver cases bungled

City Council members grilled NYPD officials Wednesday, saying they weren't doing enough to hold "reckless drivers" responsible for killing or maiming pedestrians and bicyclists.

"None of these drivers faced any charges more serious than your garden-variety traffic ticket, if that," said Council Member Jimmy Vacca, a Bronx Democrat who heads the transportation committee, during a joint meeting of his committee and one on public safety. "And yet, someone's life was changed forever or gone entirely."

John Cassidy, deputy chief of the department's Transportation Bureau, countered that there were a record-low 241 traffic deaths last year, down from 393 in 2001. Injuries were down 39 percent. "It is not that we're not doing anything out there, I think it's quite the contrary," he said.

But Cassidy confirmed something that council members and transit advocates had long suspected: Detectives assigned to investigate car accidents will show up only if someone is dead or expected to die. "The Accident Investigation Squad responds to fatalities or . . . [accidents where people are] seriously injured and likely to expire," he said.

Last year, the specialized squad of 19 detectives citywide investigated 304 cases, according to NYPD statistics; 241 of them resulted in at least one death. Officials said they didn't know of any charges brought in cases where pedestrians were deemed "unlikely to die."

Despite NYPD protocols to have the team investigate cases where someone was fatally injured, police said they faced other obstacles in bringing charges, including a depletion of manpower -- 40 percent fewer highway cops last year than in 2000 -- and summonses are often dismissed by traffic court in cases in which the officer didn't observe the accident. In some cases, "the facts and fault are not sufficiently clear to establish a crime was committed," Cassidy said.

But several victims and their families blasted the NYPD for what they called "bungled" investigations.

Erika Lefevre -- whose 30-year-old son Mathieu, of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was fatally struck by a trucker in October while riding his bike -- said police made errors in their report that contradicted video, didn't take pictures of the scene and told the driver he wouldn't be charged weeks before telling Lefevre's family.

"Our dealings with the NYPD has made that loss even more painful," she said.