Brooklyn Bleeds While Leaders Stall: Demand Safe Streets Now

Brooklyn CB11: Jan 1, 2022 - Aug 12, 2025

Death in the Crosswalk

Three people are dead in Brooklyn CB11 since last August. The last was just days ago: a 76-year-old woman crossing 86th Street at 18th Avenue. She made it to the intersection. She did not make it home. The city records say only this: “Apparent Death.”

In the past year, 483 people have been hurt and 5 seriously injured in crashes here. The old and the young are not spared. Two children under 18 were hit every week. Two people over 75 died. The numbers do not bleed, but the families do.

The Usual Killers

SUVs and trucks do the most damage. In three years, SUVs killed three people and hurt 326. Trucks killed two. Bikes killed one. The city calls these collisions. The street calls them endings.

What Leaders Have Done—and Not Done

Assembly Member William Colton voted yes to extend school speed zones. Senator Steve Chan voted no. Chan did vote yes to require speed-limiting devices for repeat speeders, but only after years of delay. The carnage did not wait.

A man who lost a friend on Morgan Avenue said, “I was sad and angry at the same time because I still feel that these are things that can be prevented. I was very frustrated that nothing has been done in more than three years since Daniel Vidal was killed.”

Polly Trottenberg, former DOT commissioner, put it plain: “In areas that were formally industrial—a lot of trucks, lot of heavy construction activity—that are becoming residential where cycling is more popular, we’re unfortunately seeing a lot of collisions with cyclists and trucks.”

The Disaster Is Slow, But It Is Here

This is not fate. This is policy. Every day without action is a choice. The dead do not get a second chance. The living do.

Call your council member. Call your assembly member. Demand a 20 mph speed limit. Demand speed cameras on every block. Demand action before another name becomes a number.