Metrics drive good governance. They quantify an initiative\u2019s progress, validate its design and demarcate between aspirational and empirical.\n<\/p>\n
Few initiatives concern the physical well-being of everyday New Yorkers more than their city\u2019s traffic safety program.\n<\/p>\n
Last month, the city Department of Transportation (DOT) released data analysis showing a record, seven percent downward trend in fatalities for early 2026, affirming the city\u2019s Vision Zero strategy to eventually eliminate all traffic deaths and injuries on city streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet the gleam of success metrics can distort our perception. It can slacken priorities, and \u2013 particularly concerning for a life-and-death issue like traffic safety \u2013 it can blind us to missed opportunities and urgent next steps.<\/p>\n
Worse, it often obscures the human stories that bridge complex government programs and real-world impact.\n<\/p>\n
I could tell you about Nishat Jannath, who lived in my Queens district, in several ways: Nishat arrived in New York from Bangladesh at a young age. She was a CCNY student. And as typical of CUNY students, she juggled school and a job, working as a cashier at a parking garage. At nineteen, she was the second oldest of four daughters. She lived near Baitul Janna Mosque in Woodside, where her father serves as the Imam.<\/p>\n
But perhaps she is best described as a big sister who doted on her younger siblings, ages nine and five.\n<\/p>\n
On the night of March 30th \u2013 just two days before the DOT report was released \u2013 Nishat was fatally struck by a private garbage truck while crossing Roosevelt Avenue. She usually came straight home from her cashier job but had stopped to pick up a birthday cake for her little sister.\u00a0 She died, a few blocks from her waiting family, with that cake still in her hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her father, Imam Helal Ahmed, told me: \u201cI brought my family to New York because it is a place of hope and new beginnings.\u00a0 Like many parents before me, I wanted peace and prosperity for my children. To lose one of them in this manner is unimaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nishat\u2019s death has bereaved her family and galvanized our community \u2013 particularly my Bangladeshi American constituents.\n<\/p>\n
Across the district, in neighborhoods like Woodside, streets are designed for speed rather than safety. Narrow sidewalks, blocked crosswalks and underlit crossings combine with large trucks on busy streets to jeopardize pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the city recorded its lowest number of traffic fatalities on record, with pedestrian deaths also declining. Still, there were more than one hundred pedestrians killed and dozens more injured while walking citywide. Queens alone saw fifty-seven traffic deaths last year, the second\u2011highest of any borough. Also in April of this year, a delivery truck struck and killed Jenny Maribel Chacho Sanchez while she was in a crash-prone Ridgewood crosswalk.<\/p>\n
I have pushed legislation to further prevent tragedies before they take place.\u00a0 They include expanding automated curb enforcement to reduce dangerous violations like double-parking and blocked crosswalks, which create blind spots and force pedestrians into traffic.<\/p>\n
Additionally, I had partnered in 2024 with community leaders and fellow elected officials on a seven-point street safety plan to better protect residents. The plan had pressed for installing permanent, brighter lighting at darkened pedestrian crossings, precisely the type of walkway where Nishat was killed.<\/p>\n
After this tragedy, which took place minutes from my own home, I am recommitted to pushing even harder.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
I stand rededicated to doing much more. Because success metrics mean nothing to a small child who lost a big sister on her birthday.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
We \u2013 city and state leaders, DOT officials, community stakeholders \u2013 must do more.\u00a0 Because we cannot console a grieving parent with a positive trend announcement.\n<\/p>\n
As her father, Imam Ahmed, asked me to share with lawmakers and the DOT: \u201cNishat should not merely be a statistic on your reports. She was beloved, by her family, by her community.\u00a0 There are immediate steps you can take. Please do everything in your power to save other families from the pain visited upon us, from the hole in our hearts, from the unbearable silence at our table.\u201d<\/p>\n
A two-term incumbent, Assembly Member Steven Raga represents sections of Woodside, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Maspeth.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Metrics drive good governance. They quantify an initiative\u2019s progress, validate its design and demarcate between aspirational and empirical.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,91445,56,2584,299,91446],"class_list":["post-233086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-nishat-jannath","tag-ny","tag-op-ed","tag-opinion","tag-traffic-deaths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233086","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=233086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}