Activists call for more safety measures in wake of child pedestrian fatalities

Activists are demanding for more safety precautions in the wake of two pedestrian fatalities.

News 12 Staff

Mar 1, 2020, 11:52 PM

Updated 1,789 days ago

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Activists are demanding for more safety precautions in the wake of two pedestrian fatalities.
Balloons, candles and toys were set up on the corner of Pennsylvania and Blake avenues in East New York where a 7-year-old boy going to school was killed Thursday morning.
Police say Payson Lott was with his mother crossing the street at the intersection when a car slammed into them.
He was killed, and his mother was injured. The incident occurred just days after police say 10-year-old Patience Albert was struck and killed by a school bus driver and killed, also in East New York.
On Sunday, organizations like Families for Safe Streets, Transportation Alternatives, and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams came out to the intersection to express their pain and outrage.
They say that not only were the deaths preventable, but that the Department of Transportation is not treating traffic fatalities as urgently as it could in underserved areas, like East New York. They calling on Mayor Mike de Blasio to make his Vision Zero plan more effective in the neighborhoods.
A spokesperson from the Department of Transportation said on Friday that with every vehicle-related fatality, the DOT will reevaluate the street to see if safety improvements can be made. They said safety improvements were already made to Blake and Pennsylvania avenues back in 2016, but that they will be looked at again.
Activists say there's a desperate need for more school crossing guards, more speed enforcement and a potential street redesign for dangerous intersections.
They say the city should evaluate the streets to prioritize pedestrians, and not drivers.