2022 deadliest year for children killed in traffic incidents since Vision Zero initiative began

Sixteen children were killed in traffic incidents in 2022, making it the deadliest year for children since the city’s Vision Zero program to eradicate motor vehicle deaths began in 2014.

The increase in child mortality from comes even as overall traffic deaths have bucked national trends and declined for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Department of Transportation data.

The 16 children killed were among a total 255 total traffic fatalities. The numbers include both pedestrian deaths and fatalities in motor vehicles.

“This is double the number of children killed in 2020 or 2018,” City Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers, chair of the city’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said at a Tuesday hearing on the data. “Crashes have killed 94 children since vision zero begin in 2014.”

Priscilla Afokoba, whose 10-year-old daughter Davina was struck and killed by an SUV on her way home from school last February, called on the city to do more. Davina was killed last winter in front of her older brother when a driver with a learners permit jumped the curb two months before Davina’s 11th birthday.

“The loss of a child is something that no parent should ever have to go through,” Afokoba said. “It is an experience that leaves one with a permanent sense of emptiness.”

Overall, the 255 deaths overall in 2022 were a decrease from 2021′s 273 deaths.

The numbers are still some of the highest since Vision Zero’s 2014 rollout brought traffic deaths from 299 the year prior to 206 fatalities in 2018 — but Tuesday’s report marks the first time the numbers have trended downward since 2018.

DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez pointed to the overall data as a positive sign. The DOT’s appearance before the committee marked the first Vision Zero hearing under the Adams administration.

“Traffic fatalities in New York City dropped for the first time since 2018, and pedestrian deaths were near record lows,” Rodriguez said. “New York City is defying national trends for pedestrian deaths, which are at a four-decade high across the states. We are also defying the pattern for the rest of New York State.”

Rodriguez touted his department’s work improving more than 1,600 intersections throughout the city and reaching 1,500 miles of bike lines citywide.

He also noted the city’s victory in turning automated speed-enforcement cameras on 24/7.

“DOT has experienced a 25% reduction in violations, with months over month declines,” he said. “That’s how getting the speed cameras for 24 hours helped New York City to save more lives.”

Traffic fatalities are down 15% from pre-Vision Zero levels.

“While we are encouraged by last year’s trends, as Mayor Adams has made clear, the only acceptable number of traffic fatalities is zero,” Rodriguez said.

DOT officials said they believe the 2022 numbers were not reflective of a trend, but say they will pay close attention to the issue.

“Even one child killed on our street is too much — we take this incredibly seriously,” said Eric Beaton, the DOT’s Deputy Commissioner for Transportation Planning and Management.

“We think that last year, it was really unfortunate to see that increase. We think that that was a little bit of an anomaly — our child fatality rates have been very low year over year. But its something we’re watching very closely,” he said. “Obviously we need to do more, we all know that. But we do put in a tremendous amount of work.”

Rodriguez said his department would not support a bill proposed by the committee to mandate overhead signage alerting drivers to nearby school entrances, though he said he agreed with the intent of the proposal.

“There is evidence that excessive signage can actually distract drivers from seeing the most important messages,” he said in written testimony submitted Tuesday.

Rodriguez said he did support “Sammy’s law,” proposed legislation that would allow the city to set lower speed limits, named for Sammy Cohen Eckstein, who was killed at the age of 12 when he was struck by a motor vehicle in 2013.