New York group outlines awareness for pedestrian deaths

In a campaign similar to the recent "ghost bike" project in St. Louis, a New York group has been stencilling outlines of bodies where pedestrians have been killed by automobiles.
The body outlines are among about 100 that have mysteriously appeared on the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan in recent months, silently calling attention to pedestrian fatalities.

A small group of community activists is responsible. Periodically and quietly, they have traveled to different neighborhoods and put down the stencils.

Most recently, they were in Borough Park, the home territory of City Councilman Noach Dear, chairman of the Council's Transportation Committee.

The stealthy stencilers were concerned that Dear had recently opposed plans for a bike lane though his district. More people are killed by cars than bikes, they said.

Charles Komanoff, an economist who is one of the stencilers, said: "We are a group of concerned New Yorkers who began gathering about a year ago to see what they could do about motor vehicle endangerment."

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