According to data collected by road safety advocates, more New Yorkers died in crashes in 2021 than in any year during former Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration.
According to amNY, 273 people were killed on the streets of New York last year, according to data provided by the activist group Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets, marking the failure of De Blasio's iconic Vision Zero initiative to reduce road accidents at the beginning of his tenure as mayor.
Danny Harris, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said Wednesday that we can't afford another year of letting traffic violence kill a record number of New Yorkers. Our leaders must use all available means to respond to this preventable public health crisis.
The number of people killed in crashes has been on the rise over the years, with 206 in 2018, 220 in 2019, 243 in 2020, and arguably the safest year on the streets of New York in recent years.
Since Bertrand took office in 2014 and implemented his street safety policy 8 years ago, last year had the highest number of deaths, but in 2019, the number of deaths and injuries began to show an upward trend, with crashes surging during the CORONAVIRUS pandemic.
Of the 273 people who died last year, 124 were pedestrians, 50 were motorcyclists, 19 were cyclists and 15 were mopeds and e-bikes, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles in New York City. During Deshao's second tenure, about 42 percent of pedestrian fatalities were caused by van (SUV) drivers, which account for 60 percent of individually owned vehicles in New York City.
Brooklyn has the highest number of crash deaths among the five boroughs, with 80 people killed, while the Bronx's cyclist deaths in 2020 and 2021 exceeded at any time in 2012-2019.
Malignant traffic accident hotspots include southeast queens, south Bronx, southwest Brooklyn, and central Staten Island.
Rodriguez, the Adams administration's newly appointed director of transportation, has vowed to better protect half of the bike lanes and redesign 1,000 intersections where many crashes have occurred.
Fatal crashes have been frequent at the start of the new year, with people dying in uptown on Monday alone and one seriously injured on McGuinness Boulevard north of Brooklyn, a highly vicious highway that Deshow promised to repair.
Advocates have called on Adams to implement their past proposals as soon as possible, to supply a quarter of New York City's streets to bicycles and buses, and to strengthen the City's Dangerous Vehicle abement Program to make it easier to seize cars owned by those who often drive recklessly.
Charles Lutvak, Adams' spokesman, said in a statement that the situation could not and would not continue. We have a plan to make streets safer throughout the city, and we're putting it into action.
Compile: LH