By Bill Parry
Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan took a major step forward Monday as he signed 11 life-saving traffic safety bills at PS 152 in Woodside. The legislation, passed by the City Council in recent weeks, enhances traffic data collection and enforcement efforts, codifies safety engineering commitments and updates the city’s legal code to toughen penalties for dangerous driving.
“We have promised the people of this city that we will use every tool we have to make streets safer,” de Blasio said. “Today is another step on our path to fulfilling that promise and sparing more families the pain of losing a son, daughter or a parent in a senseless tragedy.”
Dozens of families of traffic collision victims were on hand to witness the signing ceremony including the parents of eight-year-old Noshat Nahian, a student at PS 125 who was struck and killed by a tractor trailer while walking to school in December. The mayor announced his initiative just weeks later at the PS 125 playground where he signed the bills on Monday.
“We came here in January and we launched an idea that was new in this city, the idea of comprehensively addressing the dangers we face,” de Blasio said. “We’ve been taking aggressive action from that day forward, because we understand these collision injure almost 4,000 New Yorkers a year and kill over 250 New Yorkers in recent years. And that’s been the minimum. And that’s been an unacceptable reality each year.”
The mayor also praised leaders in Albany for legislation that empowers the city to lower its default speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph, a measure that will help reduce speeding, a leading factor in fatal traffic crashes in New York City.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
