Sunset Park residents, elected officials and public safety advocates rallied on Wednesday to push the city to install street safety improvements on a deadly stretch of Third Avenue in Sunset Park.
A broad swath of community members, including City Council Member Alexa Avilés, Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes and Senator Andrew Gounardes, Brooklyn Community Board 7, Transportation Alternatives, Families for Safe Streets, UPROSE, Women’s Empowerment Coalition of New York, Chinese American Planning Council, said the fatalities on Third Avenue, between Prospect Street and 62nd Street, are preventable with safety upgrades.
The call comes after two men on July 11 were hit and killed by a speeding driver blowing through a red light on Third Avenue and 52nd Street. The recent deaths are only the latest of the 80 New Yorkers who have been killed or seriously injured on the two mile stretch on Third Avenue between Prospect Street and 62nd Street since 2018.
"Enough is enough, said Vivian Barreto-Osborne, a Sunset Park resident and Parent Coordinator of M.S. 936. "We cannot sit back and watch reckless drivers destroy any more lives, like the person who killed my father last year with his moped because he chose to drive with a suspended license. Our community deserves safer streets."
The Department of Transportation's plan for street safety improvements along Third Avenue have been delayed for two years,
"Here we are, once again gathering to mourn another preventable tragedy on our streets. But it doesn't have to be this way," said Gounardes. "We know Third Avenue is deadly. And we know how to fix it: safer street design. We've been calling for safety improvements in this area for years."
The Third Avenue corridor has been "persistently dangerous," said Aviles. "We have the tools to majorly reduce this violence, but it's up to the mayor's office to use them."
