Statement from Transportation Alternatives after Hit-and-Run Driver Kills Two Men on Sunset Park Street Where Mayor Adams Halted Safety Improvements
Since 2018, 80 New Yorkers have been killed or seriously injured along the same two-mile stretch of Third Avenue.
A block over on Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park, pedestrian injuries have dropped by 29% since DOT installed a road diet in 2012.
BROOKLYN, NY — Early this morning, a hit-and-run driver killed two men in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The men were crossing the street at Third Avenue and 52nd Street.
Third Avenue in Sunset Park has repeatedly proven to be deadly. Since 2018, 80 New Yorkers have been killed or seriously injured along the same two-mile stretch — averaging one life-altering crash a month, every month, for seven and a half years. In 2020, nurse Clara Kang was killed on her bike just four blocks away on the same street.
The Adams administration has been stalling efforts to finally make Third Avenue safe. DOT initially proposed implementing upgrades in 2024, but then delayed the project, telling the local community board that they should expect no safety upgrades to Third Avenue until at least 2026.
Elsewhere in Brooklyn, Mayor Adams is pushing a removal of the street safety project on Bedford Avenue, even though his own agency acknowledges injuries are down.
Statement from Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas:
“We are devastated that two men were killed this morning just for trying to cross the street. Today, an entire community is grieving. These two deaths are as horrifying as they were preventable, and it’s especially gutting when two New Yorkers are killed on a street that the community and City Hall both know is dangerous. Sunset Park has demanded better, but the City has stalled time and time again, and now the Adams administration’s antagonism toward commonsense safety improvements has killed two men.
“From Sunset Park to Bedford Avenue, the Adams administration is ignoring their own data and settled research to halt — and even rip up — safety improvements. It is a level of antagonism toward people walking and biking that will only lead to more death, more injury, and more cost to taxpayers.
“Traffic violence will only end when our leaders work to prevent it — and fighting Vision Zero infrastructure only ensures more New Yorkers will die.”
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