The bill had a lot of support in Queens, where narrow, congested streets led to the deaths of several children, partially contributing to the bill\u2019s passing in 2024. <\/p>\n
The year prior, 8-year-old Bayron Palomino Arroyo, 3-year-old Quintus Chen and 7-year-old Dolma Naadhun were all killed in Queens crashes.<\/p>\n
Raul Ampuero\u2019s 9-year-old son, Giovanni was killed by a driver in Jackson Heights in 2018. <\/p>\n
Since then, he has been involved with Families for Safe Streets, a group that championed Sammy\u2019s Law up until its passing. <\/p>\n
He told the Eagle the mayor\u2019s announcement on Monday was a long time coming. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something that we were waiting for a while, and it finally went through, and we’re extremely happy,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it’s something that needed to be done three years ago, not now, and the battle that we went through to try to get this going, it’s something that really bothers me a lot, but it finally went through.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully things will be better in a few more years, and things will look better for every pedestrian and everybody else who actually needs the roads, even the vehicles,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople get used to it. People get upset because they want to rush\u2026People get used to it, and once you get used to it, you adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queens officials also championed the legislation. <\/p>\n
In early 2024, several officials and Families for Safe Streets held a march around Corona and called for the implementation of Sammy\u2019s Law not long after the death of 8-year-old Arroyo. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are too many names,\u201d Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said at the march in 2024. \u201cThey were beautiful children with a bright future and families who loved them. They could have gone anywhere, they could have been anything. They had dreams shattered, all because of reckless drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday, the BP celebrated City Hall\u2019s move to lower speed limits. <\/p>\n
“Sammy’s Law is an incredibly effective tool for making the streets near our schools safer for our children and their families,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cI am thrilled we will be using Sammy’s Law to reduce speed limits to 15 miles per hour at so many locations across Queens and the rest of the city. We need to do everything we can to make our schools and the streets around them a safe environment for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Senator Jessica Ramos helped organize the 2024 rally, and commended the mayor\u2019s move on Monday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe city\u2019s expansion of 15 MPH School Slow Zones under Sammy\u2019s Law is a critical move to make our streets safer for students, families, and everyone who walks or bikes in our neighborhoods,\u201d she said in a statement on Monday. \u201cI commend Mayor Mamdani and [Department of Transportation] Commissioner [Mike] Flynn for taking bold action, and I will keep fighting to ensure safety is a priority in every corner of New York City.\u201d <\/p>\n
While Mamdani\u2019s new measure addresses speed limits around the city\u2019s schools, he is hoping the City Council can step in to help with the rest of New York’s streets. <\/p>\n
He said that is the assessment of the Law Department that in order to lower the speed limits in \u201cone fell swoop,\u201d rather than piecemeal, would require Council legislation to change the local administrative code. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe would support the Council taking this action,\u201d he said, calling Monday\u2019s announcement a \u201csignificant step\u201d toward the ultimate goal of safer streets citywide. <\/p>\n
A Council spokesperson said that street safety is a priority for the Council and Speaker Julie Menin, who supported a resolution in 2023 which called on the state to pass Sammy\u2019s Law. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile a bill to lower the citywide speed limit has yet not been introduced, under Sammy’s Law, the NYC Department of Transportation already has the authority to lower the speed limit in specific locations,” said the spokesperson. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bill had a lot of support in Queens, where narrow, congested streets led to the deaths of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-166163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}