This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated October 2, 2020
This past Monday, September 28, 7-year-old Sama Ali was hit by an armored truck and killed in Bath Beach. She was on her scooter, crossing Bath Avenue at Bay 23rd Street in the crosswalk with her mother.
Just last year, a few short blocks away on Benson Ave and Bay 25th Street, 3-year-old Emur Shavkator was struck and killed while on his scooter, crossing in the crosswalk with his mother. There is no reason that children on scooters, crossing with their mothers in the crosswalk, should keep dying.
The intersection where Sama was killed has a traffic signal. The driver of the truck was making a left turn onto Bath Ave when he struck her. If the driver had a green light, Sama and her mother would have had the walk signal and a vehicle turning left would need to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk.
It was May 5th, 2019, three days after Emur was killed, when elected officials, transportation advocates, and members of the Uzbek community gathered with other concerned neighbors for a vigil. Those of us who attended, stood in the rain, listening to speakers call for additional safety improvements to prevent these tragedies, including a friend of Emur’s family, Dilshod, who honored the little boy’s memory, told of us of the pain his mother was dealing with, and thanked the community for supporting them.
On January 16 of this year, 67-year-old Deborah Mutell was a few blocks from the scene of where Emur was killed, crossing 86th Street by Bay Parkway, when she was killed by a private sanitation truck that struck her and fled the scene. The following month, a few blocks away near 19th Avenue and 86th Street, Jose Contla was killed by a hit-and-run driver.
These pedestrian traffic fatalities all occurred within an area with a quarter-mile radius, but these tragedies have touched every neighborhood across the city. When Jose Contla was killed in late February, he was one of six pedestrians killed in a five-day span that included two Brooklyn children. On March 5, Frank Decolvenaere was struck by a vehicle on 4th Avenue and 101st Street in Bay Ridge, where he died.
“Unfortunately, I know I will be writing more of these pieces unless we make traffic safety improvements a priority.”
More details will emerge regarding this latest incident that took Sama’s life. With any pedestrian death, there are many factors that could be at play, including excessive speed, failure to yield or not observing a traffic signal.
To prevent these tragedies from happening, there is no one solution that will address all the behaviors that lead to them, which is why we need to use every tool available to us.
Speed cameras may be the source of griping from some people, but they have been shown to change driver’s behavior and reduce speeding. Pedestrians struck by a vehicle traveling 30 mph are about 70 percent more likely to be killed than if the vehicle had been traveling 25 mph. About 9 out of 10 pedestrians survive being hit by a vehicle traveling 20 mph, while about 9 out of 10 are killed when hit by a vehicle traveling 40 mph.
In addition to enforcement, the DOT needs to continue implementing proven traffic safety improvements, such as leading pedestrian interval walk signs, speed humps, additional street markings, and rubber curbs and bollards.
The Hit-and-Run Prevention Act was first introduced in the state senate in 2017 but has stalled since then. It would establish a hit-and-run alert system similar to Amber Alerts, appropriate $1 million to an anti-hit-and-run public information campaign, and increase the penalties against drivers who flee the scene of an accident, which currently are the lowest class of felonies.
Assemblywoman Mathylde Frontus has introduced a bill to establish Jeanne’s Law, which would require any driver who knowingly injures another person with their vehicle to stop and provide their information and assist anyone injured as a result of the collision.
After Frank Decolvenaere, someone I knew, was killed in March, I began my column that week by saying, “I’m getting sick and tired of writing this column.” I specifically meant the all-too-familiar piece where I cover yet another local pedestrian fatality. Unfortunately, I know I will be writing more of these pieces unless we make traffic safety improvements a priority.
