By the site of a recent tragedy, flanked by the loved ones of New Yorkers killed on our streets and sidewalks in car and truck accidents, Mayor de Blasio ordered an aggressive program to cut traffic fatalities.
Good going, Mr. Mayor, and get going.
A vehicle-on-vehicle or vehicle-on-pedestrian crash claims the life of someone in the city every 33 hours. Many of those deaths are preventable.
De Blasio’s laudable commitment to reduce that rate is the second major drive of his administration, after his push for universal pre-kindergarten. Its results will be readily measurable.
After declining for much of the Bloomberg administration, traffic deaths are up over the last two years. They hit 286 last year, including 173 pedestrians, 13 of them children.
Eight-year-old Noshat Nahian was one of those child fatalities, and de Blasio spoke nearby the Woodside intersection where he was struck and killed by a turning truck while crossing with the light on his way to school.
Among this year’s deaths is Mohammed Akkas Ali, the 63-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant and East Village florist who the Daily News reports today succumbed to injuries he sustained in June when a driver speeding while drunk and high on PCP and methamphetamine ran his rented sedan through Ali’s flower shop.
The mayor is calling his drive part of the so-called Vision Zero movement, which originated in Sweden in the 1990s and produced a plunge in deaths even as the number of cars surged. His very ambitious goal: to bring the number of traffic deaths down to zero in a decade.
To begin down that road, de Blasio charged the police, transportation and health departments, plus the Taxi and Limousine Commission, to develop an action plan by Feb. 15.
Initial steps in the offing make sense: make dangerous driving a higher priority for the NYPD, reduce the speed limit to 20 mph on some neighborhood streets, and identify at least 50 dangerous corridors and intersections a year.
De Blasio also said he want to increase the number of red-light and speed-enforcement cameras. For that, he needs Albany’s approval — and Albany had damn well better give it.
In fact, the Legislature and Gov. Cuomo should give the city the authority to add cameras as it sees fit. Presently, that’s micromanaged by Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman David Gantt, a Democrat from Rochester.
Despite studies showing such speed cameras have reduced death and serious-injury rates in other cities by 30% and more, Gantt had blocked their expansion.
Last year, he deigned to permit a pilot with up to 20 speed cameras. Starting Thursday, six will begin issuing tickets rather than mere warnings to drivers. While their locations will not be disclosed, many will likely be around schools.
Albany must also pass the law, drafted by state Sen. Michael Gianaris, that makes it a felony to kill or seriously wound someone while driving with a suspended license. The driver who cut down 8-year-old Nahian had a suspended license — yet was charged only with a misdemeanor.
“I want the families here today to know that we are not going to let them down,” said de Blasio. “They are right to hold us accountable and right to demand more.”
May he and his administration honor what is, for many families, a life-or-death promise.
