East Harlem Doctor: “Trucks This Size Shouldn’t Be on Residential Streets”

Melanie Canon, a doctor based in East Harlem, was the first person to aid 6-year-old Amar Diarrassouba after he has fatally struck by a tractor-trailer driver Thursday morning. The New York Times’ City Room blog published her wrenching account today.

Canon raises the question that the city’s tabloid press has been too fixated on an absent crossing guard to bother with: What are big rigs doing on city streets where children walk every day?

People often ask me how I keep calm in such dreadful situations, how I keep thoughts of my own child and her safety from clouding my mind. For me, the anger and sorrow come later, as I reflect on the statistics that tell us that accidents like this are preventable.

We now know that Amar was hit by a tractor-trailer turning from congested, narrow 117th Street onto First Avenue. The driver of that huge truck said he hadn’t seen the boy, couldn’t see him, from the high perch of his mammoth truck. He didn’t hear the sickening thud, either.

This is where I come back to my training – not my medical training, but my training as a mother and community activist — where my sorrow and anger will drive me to act, to join my community in pushing for change.

Trucks this size shouldn’t be on residential streets, especially as kids are walking to and from school. ?In this country, cars and trucks kill more children than guns do. We can do better, for Amar and for all of us.