On Wednesday, the Department of Transportation followed through on previous announcements and began lowering the speed limit from 25 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour on a few streets and, eventually, all of Manhattan below Canal Street. At an event on Prospect Park West, a speed-limit sign was changed from 25 to 20, and politicians took credit for taking action and thanked advocates for pushing them to do so. But no one was more eloquent than the spotlight-avoiding father of the boy for whom Sammy's Law is named, Gary Eckstein. It was a brief speech of such grace and integrity that we are printing it in its entirety (with minor cuts just for flow).
Yesterday [Oct. 8] marks 11 years since my 12-year-old son, Sammy Cohen-Eckstein and was run over and killed right here on Prospect Park West.
Sammy was a great kid. He was smart and sensitive, articulate and probing, interested in the world and making it a better place. He was also kind and generous and a natural leader. ... He was an amazing person with such promise, but most of all, he was my son whom I loved so very much.
On that horrible day 11 years ago, Sammy's life was cut, his short and his bright future was extinguished, sending shockwaves through my family that we're still dealing with today and will for the rest of our lives. Life isn't fair. Horrible things happen for no apparent reason, and there's often nothing you can do about it. But here, there is something that can be done about traffic violence.
There are so many little things that could have gone differently that afternoon, 11 years ago, and it would have not have ended this way. If traffic had been moving more slowly that afternoon, Sammy and the driver of the van would have had more time to see each other, to take evasive action, to avoid a collision, and if an impact could still not have been avoided, it likely would have been less severe.
People make mistakes, and we need to design our streets and set up the rules of the road so there is some margin for error. A mistake by a driver or someone walking or biking should not be a death sentence, and one of the most effective ways to do that is to slow down traffic.
At 20 miles per hour, a driver's field of vision widens, and there's far more time to see and react to the unexpected. There's more time for someone walking or biking to see and avoid an errant driver, and the force of impact at 20 miles an hour is so very much less that it's less likely to cause death or serious injuries than 25 or 30 miles per hour.
So while it's too late for Sammy to benefit from these changes, it's our hope that with Sammy's Law, many more sons and daughters and parents and siblings will be able to walk away from a near miss or a minor injury with little thought to how much worse things could have turned out if the vehicle had been moving faster.
And the benefits don't end there. When traveling on the street with traffic moving at 20 miles an hour, the tension level drops dramatically. It's calmer and quieter for everyone. You can hear birds chirping and children laughing. People are more likely to feel comfortable biking and walking. They're more likely to pause and chat with a neighbor, to linger at a shop or restaurant. It's good for the neighborhood and a sense of connection to the community.
We're all grateful to our to the legislative sponsors of Sammys Law ... and to all the community groups and organizations that supported the passage of Sammys Law. But we cannot stop with just making changes to our street because we've been so outspoken. We fought hard to win this law alongside friends and allies from all over the city, from Sunset Park to Flushing, Lefrak City to the Bronx. We're excited about the list of other streets throughout the city that will get reduced speeds and the regional slow zones that will slow down traffic in a particular neighborhood, starting with lower Manhattan.
We urge the commissioner to implement 20 mile per hour speed limits on even more streets and neighborhoods throughout the city, so that many more lives can be saved and communities enriched.
