Mayor de Blasio, at podium, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, second from right, and Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, right, joined other officials at PS 152 in Woodside on Wednesday to announce the city’s “Vision Zero” initiative, which aims to reduce the number of traffic fatalities to zero with the next decade. Photo courtesy Queens Borough President’s Office
With pedestrian fatalities on the rise in Queens – and much of the city, including the death of an 8-year-old boy who was struck and killed by a truck while walking to school in Woodside, elected officials said Wednesday that they have one goal in mind: Reduce citywide traffic deaths to zero within 10 years.
Mayor de Blasio, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, Borough President Melinda Katz, and other elected officials joined the families of individuals who died while merely trying to live their lives – walking to school, to the store, to their home – at PS 152 in Woodside to announce the mayor’s “Vision Zero” plan to prevent traffic fatalities. De Blasio charged the NYPD, city Department of Transportation, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and Taxi & Limousine Commission with developing a comprehensive roadmap to eliminate deadly crashes, especially those involving pedestrians.
So far this year, there have been 11 New Yorkers killed in traffic, with seven of them being pedestrians. According to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, being struck by a car is the leading cause of injury-related death for children younger than 14, and the second leading cause of injury-related death for seniors.
“This will be a top-to-bottom effort to take on dangerous streets and dangerous driving,” de Blasio said outside PS 152. “We weren’t going to wait and lose a son, a daughter, a parent, or a grandparent in another senseless and painful tragedy.”
The initiative will include tougher NYPD enforcement efforts, the implementation of improvements in at least 50 corridors and intersections per year citywide, and an expansion in the number of 20 miles-per-hour zones.
“My mother was killed by a drunk driver, so I take traffic safety issues very personally,” Katz said. “That’s why I am so impressed with the mayor’s ‘Vision Zero’ plan and am optimistic that its goal of reducing the number of traffic deaths to zero will become a welcome reality.”
Wednesday’s press conference was held near the corner of Northern Boulevard and 61st Street, the intersection where 8-year-old Noshat Nahian was struck and killed while walking to school with his 11-year-old sister.
Bratton too threw his support behind the plan.
“We will be just as aggressive in preventing a deadly crash on our streets as we are in preventing a deadly shooting,” he said. “Our police are going to enforce the laws on our streets consistently and effectively.”
By Anna Gustafson
