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MAY 19, 2019, BROOKLYN WEEKLY
‘We have lost too many people’
Cuomo signs bill to add more than 600 new speed cameras throughout city
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
Say cheese!
The city will see the addition
of more than 600 new speed cameras
next month after Gov. Andrew
Cuomo signed into law on Sunday
legislation co-sponsored by state
Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D–Bay
Ridge) authorizing a massive expansion
of the current 140 cameras
and extending the hours they operate.
The local pol thanked the governor
for signing the bill and said
it amounted to a victory for street
safety advocates.
“No parent, senior, or pedestrian
of any age should live in fear
of crossing the street because of
speeding traffi c,” Gounardes said.
“Signing this bill into law today
will slow traffi c and saves lives.”
The legislation, co-sponsored by
Manhattan Assemblywoman Deborah
Glick, allows offi cials to install
up to 610 cameras — which automatically
photograph the license plates
of cars driving 30 miles-per hour
or more in school zones, and send
those vehicles’ registered owners
$50 tickets — across the city’s 2,300
school zones. The bill also:
• Lengthens the hours the cameras
are on, extending their current
operating times from an hour
before and after school is in session
to between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
on weekdays, including during the
summer.
• Broadens the areas where the
cameras operate, allowing offi -
cials to install them within a quarter
mile radius of schools, not just
within a quarter-mile stretch of the
same street a given school is on as
current law allows.
• Requires the city to hang signs
in school zones with speed cameras
that warn drivers of the technology’s
presence.
• Mandates local offi cials prioritize
placing the cameras in school
zones with higher rates of speeding
and crashes.
• Requires the city to submit annual
reports to the governor and
leadership of both chambers of the
Legislature with data including the
total amount of ticket revenue that
local offi cials spent on traffi c and
pedestrian safety measures, as well
as “the effectiveness and adequacy
of the expanded hours of operation.”
The governor said the expansion
offered an obvious way to protect pedestrians
— especially youngsters
en route to school — from speeding
and reckless drivers.
BILL BECOMES A LAW: Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law on Sunday a bill, co-sponsored by state Sen. Andrew Gounardes,
that will more than quintuple the city’s existing 140 speed cameras and dramatically expand the hours that they will be in
use. Kevin P. Coughlin/State of New York
“Something as simple as
walking to and from school
can be the most dangerous
part of the day, especially in
this city with this complexity
and this density,” Cuomo
said. “We have learned it
the hard way. We have
lost too many people.”
During the Mother’s
Day signing of the
bill, the pol thanked
Park Slope resident Amy
Cohen — whose 12-yearold
son, Sammy Cohen
Eckstein, was killed by a
speeding driver near his
Prospect Park West home
in 2013 — for her advocacy
to preserve and expand the
cameras.
Cohen said the passage
of the legislation signaled
a shift in street safety for today’s
youngsters.
“We are protecting the next generation
of children — creating a
safe passage to school, changing the
culture of reckless driving so that
other mothers will get to raise their
children, so that children can grow
into adults themselves and outlive
their parents,” she said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said the existing
cameras have already proven
to reduce collisions and fatalities,
and added that the expansion will
keep more youngsters safe.
“Speed cameras are keeping
our kids safe and saving lives,” the
mayor said. “We needed to protect
more kids at more schools, and now
we have the power to do it.”
There have been 70 citywide
traffi c fatalities so far this year, 41
of which have involved pedestrians,
according to Department of
Transportation spokesman Brian
Zumhagen, who added 13 of the 23
fatal collisions that have occurred
in Kings County so far this year involved
pedestrians.
Data shows that the cameras
already in place have reduced the
number of both speeding drivers
and fatalities; in the year and a half
after offi cials fi rst installed them
in 2014, there were 60 percent fewer
daily violations in school zones
with speed cameras, according
to a 2017 report published by the
DOT, which added that fatalities reduced
by an average of 55 percent in
school zones with speed cameras in
the three years immediately before
and after the cameras were fi rst installed.
The majority of Gounardes’
constituents also supported adding
more cameras, according to a 2018
poll commissioned by street-safety
group Transportation Alternatives.
But the path to passing the bill was
fraught with controversy.
State Sen. Simcha Felder (D–
Midwood) blocked legislation preserving
and expanding the program
from leaving the Cities
Committee — which he chaired at
the time, in the then-Republicancontrolled
Senate — for a fl oor vote
in the upper chamber before it dispersed
in June, prompting the 140
speed cameras to temporarily shut
off last July.
Members of the council then
stepped in to broker an emergency
deal between de Blasio and Cuomo,
who ultimately signed an executive
order to turn the tech back on before
school started in September.
The legislation takes effect July
11, and will be valid through June
30, 2022, according to a spokesman
from the governor’s offi ce.
Reps from the governor’s offi ce
did not immediately reply to inquiries
about when the cameras would
turn on, if the 610 new ones have
already been installed, and how
many of the total cameras are in
Kings County.
LIFE’S WORK: Park Slope resident Amy Cohen advocated for the preservation
and expansion of the city’s speed camera program — which Gov. Cuomo signed
into law on Sunday — in memory of her son, 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein,
who was hit and killed by a speeding driver near his Prospect Park West home in
2013. Kevin P. Coughlin/State of New York