Turning grief into action News
Emma Blumstein. Seth Kahn. Kelly Gordon. Ella Bendes. Sammy Cohen. Cooper Stock.
Their faces peered out from pictures held by family members who gathered Sunday on the steps of City Hall. Those holding the pictures were all members of Families for Safe Streets, and all have lost their loved ones to collisions with vehicles on the streets of New York.
Many held another sign that read “No Charges Filed,” a statement that’s become a rallying cry in the effort to get the five New York district attorneys to prosecute drivers that, due to negligence or recklessness, kill or seriously injure a pedestrian.
“Crashes caused by aggressive driving are not accidents. When drivers make turns at full speed without even looking, or speed through intersections and kill people, D.A.s never press charges,” said Amy Cohen, a founding member of Families for Safe Streets who lost her son, Sammy, in October 2013. “We need to change the culture on our streets and make it unacceptable to drive recklessly. We will never get to zero fatalities and serious injuries unless we hold dangerous drivers accountable for their actions.”
According to the organization, a pedestrian is killed in New York every 33 hours. Statistics included in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative say that traffic crashes are the leading cause of injury-related death for children under 14. Families for Safe Streets maintains that five children in New York City are hit by vehicles every day.
The organization was a major force behind Vision Zero implementation last year, contributing to traffic safety improvements throughout the city and the installation of more speed bumps and traffic cameras, as well as a citywide speed limit reduction to 25 miles per hour.
About 30 family members and a handful of survivors attended the rally Sunday, along with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and council members Margaret Chin and Brad Lander.
Judy Kottick, whose daughter was killed crossing the street by a bus at the age of 23, said her daughter, Ella Bandes, was a beautiful dancer and artist.
“But her dream was to bring mental health interventions to underserved populations. She was in the process of applying to PhD psychology programs [when she was killed],” said Kottick. “Ella was killed by a bus outside the Myrtle/Wyckoff subway station on the Brooklyn-Queens border, and both the Brooklyn and Queens DA failed to press charges against the driver.”
Kottick was one of a handful of people that told stories of their loved ones who had been killed in what Families for Safe Street’s calls “traffic violence.” Many of the stories ended with the statement that the respective district attorney failed to file charges against the drivers involved.
But that all could change. Families for Safe Streets announced Sunday that Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson was launching the District Attorney Driver Accountability Initiative. While details on the initiative are scarce, momentum seems to be building for the argument that in incidents where it is found a motorist killed or seriously injured a pedestrian by driving recklessly, the incident should be regarded not as an accident but as a potential crime.
“Explain to us why someone violates the law and you don’t prosecute, you don’t convict, you don’t fine, you don’t take their license away,” said Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. “Some of these people are consistent traffic violators and are harming other people.”
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Council Member Margaret Chin both said they’d urge Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance to consider joining the driver accountability initiative.
Families for Safe Streets said charges are filed in just two percent of traffic incidents where pedestrians are struck, excluding hit and runs and against drivers who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
“Clearly there’s more that needs to be done,” said Cohen, who noted her organization is working to schedule meetings on the issue with the remaining district attorneys.