Commuting - Hit & Run Tragedy Hits Home - NY Daily News

This kind of news makes me both sad and angry.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/358926p-305825c.html

Hit-&-run tragedy hits home

Who smashed Enid off her bike?
News offers $5000 reward

By TONY SCLAFANI and ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Enid Rivera is an avid cyclist. Did you see who hit her? Help us nab the slob.
The Daily News has shined a harsh spotlight this year on a growing menace on city streets - hit-and-run drivers who kill and maim with their cars, then vanish like cowards.

Now the tragic scourge has hit home.

Enid Rivera, a popular designer at The News, lies in a hospital after a driver pinned her and her bicycle against a row of parked cars on Queens Blvd., then careened away into the night.

The News is offering a reward of up to $5,000 to help police track down the driver.

Rivera, 46, is an avid cyclist who rode her bike 13 miles to work from Jamaica, Queens, to The News' W. 33rd St. offices every day, and always wore a helmet and safety lights.

"It's like a nightmare," said her sister, Rubie Rivera, 47. "I'm very upset. I want to get this guy. He shouldn't be out there - especially since he left the scene."

Enid Rivera and her boyfriend, Douglas Arevalo, 33, were riding home on the Queens Blvd. service road near Hillyer St. about 8:30 p.m. Thursday when a car roared up behind them.

"She was riding just behind me," said Arevalo, who veered up on the sidewalk when he heard a screech and bang behind him. "She just kept riding straight and got hit by the car.

"It happened too fast," he said. "All I could see was that it was a blue car - and that it kept going."

The driver sideswiped five other cars before speeding off. Cops talked with witnesses but couldn't come up with a description of the car.

"I heard a couple of screams," a witness who didn't want to be identified told The News. "It just sped by at high speed. It just missed us. If I hadn't swerved, it would have hit us, too."

Enid Rivera put together The News' "New York Vue" television guide each week, designing the cover and inside pages.

She appears to have neurological damage. Her condition was upgraded to stable last night, as she was moved from intensive care to a private room at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens in Flushing.

"She's moving, and once in awhile she might mumble a word or two. She opens her eyes, but you're not really sure if she's recognizing you," Arevalo said.

"If you ask her to squeeze your hand, she squeezes your hand."

Eighteen cyclists have been killed by cars this year, up from 15 in all of 2004 and 12 in all of 2003, according to the biking advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.

Help us nab the coward

Anyone with information about the hit-and-run driver who critically injured Daily News designer Enid Rivera should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls are confidential.

The News will pay a reward of up to $5,000 for information substantially leading to the arrest and conviction of the driver who hit Rivera. If more than one witness provides such information, the award amount will be shared among them.

The claim for this reward must be made within 90 days after the conviction of the driver who hit Rivera. Persons making such claim must be able to demonstrate their contribution to the arrest and conviction through documents or other evidence. Law enforcement officials and members of their families are not eligible for this reward.

Did you see it?

Cops need your help to find the hit-and-run driver who pinned bicyclist Enid Rivera against a row of parked cars in Queens.

# TIME: 8:30 p.m. Thursday

# PLACE: Eastbound Queens Blvd. service road, between Hillyer St. and 51st Ave.

# DESCRIPTION: Witnesses saw a dark-colored sedan driving fast scrape against a row of parked cars. The car may have damage on its right side.

# GETAWAY: One witness saw the car turn right on Codwise Place, then left the wrong way down Van Kleeck St.

Originally published on October 24, 2005

Terrible. We can at least hope that some good will come of this tragedy, however: perhaps the News will finally start giving appropriate coverage both to cyclist fatalities and to the NYPD's refusal to prosecute drivers for them, as well as to the City's attacks on cyclist rights to the road!

dam it!!!!!!!!! i hate when people get away with things like this!!!!!!!!!!!!
i hate having to look over my shoulder an assume that some moron behind me is gunna hi me and run off.
well ill be back in a hour or so to scour the neighborhood for a blue car with some right side damage.

Drivers like this are more than menaces, they're murderous criminals. The cyclist wasn't the only victim of a hit & run this year. There's been mothers, children, elderly, etc. that've been run over and killed by hit & run drivers. As a society, we have to turn these killers in if we know them or can identify them and pressure our elected body to put these people behind bars for a long time. If you hit someone while driving, stop and call the police, that's one thing. If you hit someone and take off w/o stopping and don't come to their aid, that's another. The latter has to stop.

This is just a more dramatic and violent symbol of the general decline of morality and loss of a sense of personal responsibility in today's society. I'd be curious to see if there is a relationship between efforts to remove religious and moral symbols from public society and an increase in this type of behavior. Though it may be deemed inappropriate by some, I intend to pray for her.

hit and runs have become a HUGE problem. it's murder as far as i'm concerned - even if it started off as an accident. i'm so sick of reading stuff like this, and it seems to happen almost everyday.

I'd be curious to see if there is a relationship between efforts to remove religious and moral symbols from public society and an increase in this type of behavior.

Frankly, I'd be stunned if there were. The vast majority of those arguing for religious rule in this country are in no way humanitarian or even particularly moral; they're just evangelical. If they were truly Christian or truly believed in those commandments they want placed in every school, park, and courtroom, their preferred government would be one dedicated to helping the poor and the unfortunate rather than one dedicated to rewarding the wealthy elites.

This type of behavior is bound to rise whenever the culture at large evinces a conviction that might makes right. Under the prevailing value system of our culture's ruling class, the bigger vehicle always wins and the rich man's time is more valuable than the poor man's life - can we really express surprise when a driver doesn't stop?

Frankly, I'd be stunned if there were. The vast majority of those arguing for religious rule in this country are in no way humanitarian or even particularly moral; they're just evangelical. If they were truly Christian or truly believed in those commandments they want placed in every school, park, and courtroom, their preferred government would be one dedicated to helping the poor and the unfortunate rather than one dedicated to rewarding the wealthy elites.

This type of behavior is bound to rise whenever the culture at large evinces a conviction that might makes right. Under the prevailing value system of our culture's ruling class, the bigger vehicle always wins and the rich man's time is more valuable than the poor man's life - can we really express surprise when a driver doesn't stop?

Two quick points to support your observations:

1. How many good religious folk were, and still are, screaming in favor of war.
2. Worst place to be on a bicycle - in the church parking lot when mass lets out.

Yet another cyclist pays an extreme price. Some thanks for helping to reduce our country's dependency on oil. Yet another drunken coward goes free. Enid will be in our prayers.

Two things not mentioned in the article that I'd like to know:

1. Will the Daily News be covering her medical expenses not covered by her insurance?
2. Would they have published this article if Enid didn't work for them? It wasn't reported on by any of the other NY dailies AFAIK.