Traffic crashes on New York’s streets claimed the lives of 16 children in the first nine months of 2022, a record of the Vision Zero era, according to a new report from advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.
Carnage on the city’s streets has already killed five more children under 18 than died in all of 2021. The total so far this year is also 23% higher than had been seen in any full year after the city adopted Vision Zero as a governing principle in 2014, according to the report.
Of those 16 children, 13 of them were killed by large vehicles, including bulky SUVs and pickup trucks, vans, buses, and trucks.
“No other year under Vision Zero has been as deadly for our children as 2022,” said Dana Lerner, whose son Cooper Stock was killed by a cab driver on the Upper West Side in 2014, in a statement. “My 9-year-old son Cooper Stock deserved to grow up. The 16 children killed this year deserved to grow up.”
The deceased include 5-year-old Jonathan Martinez, who was killed in East Elmhurst in September in a hit-and-run, by an unlicensed driver operating an unregistered, uninsured, souped-up Dodge pickup truck. The driver was arrested a few weeks later.
A startling 30 people were left critically injured in hit-and-runs just in the third quarter of 2022, Transportation Alternatives found, more than any three-month period since at least 2018. That brings the total injured by fleeing drivers to 63 this year.
Another 5-year-old boy, Yaakov Farhi, died three months after being run over near his Midwood home, by the driver of a BMW with Florida plates pulling into a driveway.
The streets have been particularly deadly in the Bronx this year, with one-in-four traffic deaths this year occurring in the northernmost borough. The 47 victims include 16-year-old Alissa Kolenovic, who was killed by a delivery truck while crossing the street in Morris Park.
In total, 187 people were killed in traffic collisions in the first nine months of 2022, according to Vision Zero data from the Department of Transportation. That includes 77 pedestrians, 13 cyclists, and 81 motorists.
In a statement, DOT spokesperson Vin Barone noted the administration has invested $900 billion in implementing the city’s master plan for its streets, and posited that pedestrian fatalities are in fact trending downward, nearly 15% below what they were at last year.
“The Adams Administration has invested a historic $900 million in the DOT to repurpose our street space in support of safe, sustainable, and efficient transportation options,” Barone said. “We’ve exceeded our commitment this year to deliver safety improvements at 1,000 intersections and focused on equitably distributing these projects citywide to ensure every community is benefiting from this life-saving work.”
Last year, Transportation Alternatives called on the city to commit to repurposing 25% of traffic and parking roadways to space for pedestrians, cyclists, and straphangers. The plan was endorsed by then-mayoral candidate Eric Adams. The nonprofit says that redesigning car-centric infrastructure, to calm traffic and reduce the number of cars on the road, would save lives.
This week, the Adams administration announced that it has exceeded its goal to implement safety improvements at Big Apple intersections in 2022, through street redesigns, daylighting, pedestrian-centered traffic signals, and other calming measures. But advocates also noted this week that the city is well behind on its statutory requirement to build 20 miles of bus lanes this year.
“Vision Zero works when our leaders scale proven solutions that prevent traffic violence. Mayor Adams’ completion of more than 1,200 intersection safety upgrades is proof that this administration can deliver on its goals,” said Transportation Alternatives executive director Danny Harris in a statement. “Now, we need the Adams administration to demonstrate the same commitment to meet and exceed other requirements, like the NYC Streets Plan, in order to make NYC 25×25 a reality and ensure that no one needs to fear death or injury when crossing the street in New York.”
This story has been updated with comment from DOT.
