STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — With more than 230 people injured by vehicles while walking Staten Island’s streets last year—the most in seven years—the Richmond County District Attorney’s office is sounding the alarm and urgently explaining how the borough’s pedestrians can take safety into their own hands.
While the behavior of Staten Island drivers has long been scrutinized when it comes to making borough streets safer, Richmond County Assistant District Attorney Mark Palladino says the office has identified an alarming trend that he coined “pedestrian error,” which has become prevalent in our borough.
The unsafe behavior involves pedestrians crossing streets while looking at their phones and/or unexpectedly crossing mid-block, either outside of a crosswalk or nowhere near one…