This post provides background information, analysis and a chronology with respect to a Freedom of Information Law equest for records concerning the traffic crash in the title of the post.

Streetsblog reported on November 5, 2009, that Seth Kahn died from injuries caused by a bus that struck him while it was turning.  The Daily News  quoted an unidentified witness as stating that Kahn was “rushing to make the light,” and that “The NYC Transit driver was not charged following the 8:40 a.m. accident.”   Since traffic in the process of turning must always yield to traffic not turning, and must otherwise exercise due care not to strike a pedestrian, surely there is at least a potential basis for a charge of criminal negligence, based on the  few details made public. 

A FOIL request for records concerning the crash was sent to NYPD on November 5, 2009.

Subsequently, various media reported that the bus driver responsible, Jeremy Philhower, had been disciplined for sending text messages while driving a bus, and struck Kahn on his first day back behind the wheel after attending mandatory safety training. Other reports attributed homicidal and suicidal Facebook rants to Philhower.  A week after the crash, police told the press that both Kahn and Philhower had a green light, but that Philhower for failed to yield to Kahn.  Philhower was reportedly issued a summons for failure to yield. 

On November 17, 2009 a letter dated November 10, 2009 was received.  (Remarkably, the letter was enclosed in an envelope with an NYPD Pitney-Bowes postmark dated October 23, 2009–two weeks prior to the FOIL Request).  It stated that, in light of alternative procedures potentially available for obtaining public records concerning the crash, the initial FOIL request must be re-asserted or will be deemed closed within 30 days.  If re-asserted, it is estimated that an NYPD response would be received within 120 days.

Because the alternative procedures alluded to in the November 10 letter appear to be available only to a persons who could show their interest in civil litigation arsing form the crash, these alternatives were declined and the original FOIL request was re-asserted in a letter sent Nov. 18, 2009.  Based on NYPD’s estimate, a response to the original FOIL request should be received in approximately mid-March, 2010.