A Brooklyn mom has been an advocate for Vision Zero and safer streets since her son’s death in 2013. Now, as the program that aims to eliminate all traffic deaths and serious injuries turns 10, she is still working to improve road safety, including getting a long-stalled bill named after her son approved in Albany.
“Sammy was an incredible kid. I mean, really an all around wonderful person,” Amy Cohen said. “He was kind, he was smart, he had many talents. He was a musician and an athlete.”
Sammy died at 12 years old on Oct. 8, 2013, after being struck by the driver of a van outside of their apartment building. It happened as Sammy went to retrieve a soccer ball that rolled into the street. The cars in one lane of the one-way roadway stopped for him, but Cohen said the driver of the van in the other lane was going “way too fast” to avoid hitting her son. The driver had his license temporarily suspended, but was never criminally charged.
“It is a cliche, but it is so true, Cohen said. “There’s just always an empty seat at the table.”
She channeled her anguish into activism in hopes of shielding other parents from the heartbreak of losing a child at the hands of a reckless or speeding driver.
Cohen went on to connect with other families who suffered similar losses and in 2014 they formed Families for Safe Streets. Along with Transportation Alternatives, the group has focused on policy changes that are central to Vision Zero, including reducing speed limits, getting speed cameras and better road design. In addition to New York City, the group has grown to have chapters across the country.
Cohen is now inching toward a new milestone, passage of a lingering bill in Albany named for her son. Sammy’s Law, first introduced in 2020, would allow New York City to set its own speed limits. Right now, the city can’t adjust speed limits without the state’s approval.
Cohen took part in a four-and-half day hunger strike in June to pressure Assembly Speaker Carl…
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