Friday’s Headlines: Holiday Tragedy Edition

An allegedly intoxicated Ford F-150 driver plowed into a crowd of people at a park in Manhattan during Fourth of July celebrations on Thursday — killing at least two and injuring seven others, Mayor Adams and NYPD said.

The driver blew through a stop sign at the intersection of Water Street and Cherry Street shortly before 9 p.m., police officials said at a press conference late Thursday night.

The driver, who was arrested, was driving “at a high rate of speed,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said at the press conference.

Cops “did smell some alcohol,” but NYPD was still conducting tests on the driver as of the NYPD’s 10:40 p.m. briefing, Maddrey said.

The tragedy comes amid a surge in pedestrian death on city streets this year, with over 60 people killed walking the city so far. The crash happened the Central Business District tolling zone — where congestion pricing, which Gov. Kathy Hochul refused to implement on June 30 as long planned, would have cut auto traffic by 17 percent.

While there’s no way to say the tolls would have prevented this particular tragedy, fewer cars typically fewer car crashes. Transpo Maps on Monday launched a mapping tool that tracks preventable traffic violence in the CBD, where a car crash happened every 54 minutes in 2023.

Here’s the rest of New York City’s transportation news of the last two days:

• Big surprise: The right-wing “Project 2025” fever dream would be terrible for transit riders. (Center for American Progress)
• NY1 spoke to Upstate businesses concerned about potential lost business due to Hochul’s congestion pricing shenanigans.
• New Jersey members of Congress ask Buttigieg to get to the bottom of NJ Transit-Amtrak issues. (Gothamist)
• NYPD chase ends with runaway driver critically injuring a cyclist. (Daily News)
• More coverage of Lyft’s latest outrageous Citi Bike fare hike. (Crain’s, Hell Gate)