Week of Feb 2

Frances Rickard’s Final Walk

Frances Rickard had walked New York’s streets for 90 years. She lived on the Upper West Side. On February 4, the streets took her life.

She was crossing York Avenue and East 72nd Street when a yellow taxi made a U-turn and struck her. A second car hit her moments later. She was rushed to Weill Cornell Medical Center. She did not survive.

Both drivers stayed. No charges were filed. The city moved on.

A Deadly Pattern

Rickard was not alone. Days later, a 75-year-old man was killed in the Bronx. He was crossing White Plains Road at Wood Avenue. He had the signal. The SUV driver hit him anyway. He died of crush injuries.

In the first weeks of 2025, traffic deaths have already claimed 26 lives. Serious injuries are up 21% compared to last year. The city knows this. It has known for years. And still, it does not act fast enough.

“There’s both the opportunity and obligation for the city government to be addressing traffic crashes and people, New Yorkers, dying on the streets when they’re hit by a car with the same seriousness that they’re obviously taking people who are shot and killed in gun violence deaths,” said Ben Furnas of Transportation Alternatives.

No Consequences, No Change

The drivers who hit Rickard walked away. The driver who killed the man in the Bronx did too. Again and again, the city treats these deaths as accidents, not failures.

“This type of sudden tragedy, before-their-time loss, when we learn about it in the gun violence context, spurs the government into action,” Furnas said. “When we hear about it in the traffic-crash context, it sometimes doesn’t move every public official that same way.”

These deaths are not inevitable. Cities around the world have made streets safer for seniors. New York has the tools—it just refuses to use them.

Lower speed limits. Raised crosswalks. Hardened daylighting. The city moves too slow. And seniors keep dying.

How Many More?

Frances Rickard lived through nine decades of change in New York. But the streets never changed for her. They remained deadly. They remain deadly still.

New York must fix this. It has failed Frances Rickard. It has failed too many others. It cannot keep failing.

Take action now. Because if the city won’t protect its oldest residents, who will?

← She Survived the Nazis and Chernobyl—But Not New York’s Streets. A Senior Died Steps from Safety. NYC Let It Happen. →

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