11.08.2013

To Honor Sammy Eckstein's Memory, please consider contacting your representatives about traffic safety


[on behalf of the Cohen/Eckstein family]


Dear Family, Friends, Colleagues and Neighbors,

Please accept our thanks for your support during this extremely difficult time. The full measure of our loss is still unfolding for us. But as time passes and we begin to resume our normal routine, we are particularly grateful to be a part of such a caring community. We received an extraordinary level of support in the outpouring of condolence cards, donations in Sammy's memory, shiva visits, gifts of food, assistance in opening our home to so many visitors, serving, cleaning and storing food as well as help attending to various matters big and small. We have also been deeply moved by the many things Sammy's schools and soccer teams have done to honor his memory. While the tremendous level of support was extremely helpful, the sheer scale of it makes it impossible for us to properly thank each individual personally, as much as we would like to do so. But do know that each and every act of kindness and generosity has been duly noted and is greatly appreciated. It is comforting to know that our community shares some of Sammy's most endearing qualities.

Many of you have asked if there is anything you can do.  We ask that you take a few minutes and send a personal note or call your elected official encouraging the promotion and enforcement of traffic safety measures.  Below are some statistics and websites you can use to craft a letter.  If you live in NYC, please send letters to your City Council representative and Bill de Blasio, our Mayor-elect. 

With love and gratitude,

Amy, Gary, & Tamar

PS – When including Sammy’s name, please note that the press misspelled his last name. Despite Amy’s efforts to have him use her last name, Cohen is actually his middle name and not a hyphenated last name (i.e., Sammy Cohen Eckstein). 

Bill de Blasio contact information:
New Yorkers for de Blasio
32 Court Street, Suite 902
Brooklyn, NY 11201
347-746-2455

How to identify your Council Member:
http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtml.  This may not be up to date with the election results, but information on the winners is here: http://www.nytimes.com/projects/elections/2013/general/city-council/results.html or call the League of Women Voters at (212) 725-3541.  (If Brad Lander or Steve Levin is your representative, thank them for their support and request that they lead the charge for change.)

Local Statistics & Proposed Solutions:
Every 33 hours a New Yorker is killed in a traffic crash. According to NYPD data, 60 percent of these fatal crashes are caused by speeding, failure to yield, and a small number of other traffic violations. Yet the NYPD does not prioritize the enforcement of these violations – known from their own data to be most deadly – choosing instead to focus on violations that do not cause widespread crashes, injuries or fatalities. NYC needs to prioritize implementation of 20 MPH Slow Zones (request they be named in memory as “Sammy” Slow Zones) and Safe Routes to School improvements for more comprehensive solutions to neighborhood traffic safety concerns as well as install safe crosswalks at corners and highly-trafficked mid-blocks, especially along school routes.

National Statistics for those of you outside NYC:
In 2010, 4,280 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in the United States, and another 70,000 pedestrians were injured. This averages to one crash-related pedestrian death every 2 hours, and a pedestrian injury every 8 minutes. Traffic fatalities in the U.S. have been on a steady decline for nearly a decade, the result of safer cars, (hopefully) safer driver behavior, and laws that enforce seat belt use and crack down on hazards like drunken driving. But even in the midst of that big-picture trend, a small subset of this same data has lately been worrisome: Since 2009, pedestrian fatalities have actually been rising. And compared against national traffic statistics, as riding in cars has gotten safer, this means that pedestrians have grown to represent a larger share of all traffic fatalities in the U.S.

Reports: