At his weekly press conference, Mayor Adams was asked about the fatal crash on Saturday on an unmerciful highway-like road through a residential area caused by a woman who was not prevented from driving, despite her long record of speeding and her suspended license and her history of mental illness — and once again called it an "accident."
Nothing about the crash — which killed a mother and two of her children — was an "accident"; indeed, it was the result of a chain of actions: The City Council allowed the Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program to expire without replacing it, so that driver Miriam Yarimi's 20 speed-camera tickets didn't end up on any watch list; the state legislature refused to pass bills that would make speed camera tickets count against a driver's license and a bill that would require drivers with far fewer tickets to have a device installed in their car to prevent speeding; the city and state failed to redesign Ocean Parkway so that cars could not get up to the speeds that Yarimi was allegedly traveling when she smashed into another car and Natasha Saada and her family; cops never pulled over Yarimi for driving without a license, as she allegedly was on Saturday.
But to Mayor Adams, it's just an "accident." In addition, it was an excuse for Hizzoner to brag about all he's done (such as leading the fight to lower the speed limit when he was a back-bencher in the state Senate) and also share the pain he has to endure as a mayor.
"To lose your wife and two children, and now you have a young child, Philip, in the hospital, currently getting care. Those are the parts of this job that people don't see," the mayor said. "Sitting in that room with his dad and talking about what is happening, how he feels. Like, what do you say? What words do you find?"
Here are a few: "I'm sorry that we all failed you. And we will make sure this will never happen again." And then mean it.
In other news from a slow day:
- Hat tip to the Post for focusing on how the highway-like design of Ocean Parkway is encouraging speeding.
- Here's a classic CONservative governMENt moment: Rep. Mike Lawler campaigned on bring back $32 million in pork to his Westchester district ... then later voted against the funding as part of his role as loyal MAGA foot soldier. (NYDN)
- Mayoral hopeful and fundraising giant Zohran Mamdani offered a different approach to policing — and it relies on using more non-cop professionals to do work that cops shouldn't be doing (NYDN, NY Times) — but, of course, the Post panned it.
- The Brooklyn Paper covered the story of the week — the new push for a bill to prevent reckless drivers from speeding — and gave Streetsblog a nice hat tip for our interview with Assembly Member Michael Novakhov.
- New York to New Haven — 10 minutes faster. (NYDN)
- Speed cameras are working, says NYU. (amNY)
