March 13, 2024
Carl E. Heastie
Speaker of the New York State Assembly
Legislative Office Building, Room 932
Albany, NY 12248
Dear Assembly Speaker Heastie:
As an alliance of global road safety and health organizations from academia, practitioners, and philanthropies, the Child Health Initiative provides a voice for the specific needs and rights of children within transportation and urban mobility policymaking. We are committed to saving lives through evidence-based best practices to lower the risks for every child. This is why we support Sammy’s Law to allow New York City to set speeds to 20mph on neighborhood streets.
During New York City’s Vision Zero era 108 children have been killed on the streets. Sammy’s Law will help ensure more families do not endure the tragic loss of a child. Traffic violence costs the New York State economy at least $15 billion annually in combined costs from hospitalization, emergency response, legal expenses, lost wages, and lost economic activity. For a child, being hit at 30 mph risks their life on a coin toss, with a 50/50 chance of survival, but at 20 mph there is a 90% chance at life. Targeted speed reduction is a cost-effective, common-sense, approach.
Similar laws save lives around the world. The World Health Organization considers the right of local authorities to modify speed limits as a global best practice. Cities are increasingly making speed policy decisions based on local evidence, cutting speed from 30mph to 20mph, which is driving down traffic casualties. For example, London has reported a 25% decrease in serious injuries and deaths and a 63% reduction in pedestrian collisions. In Helsinki traffic-related injuries fell by 42% and in Fortaleza, Brazil, the fatality rate halved. Within the United States, we are delighted to see cities such as Seattle, WA, Minneapolis, MN, and Washington DC, have adopted 20mph on neighborhood streets. New York City is notable in its absence.
Sammy’s Law can play a crucial role in helping the United States meet the goal to half road deaths and injuries by 2030, set by the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety. Where New York leads, other cities and countries will follow.
We respectfully urge the New York State legislature to include Sammy’s Law in the budget and to make New York streets safer for everyone.
Sincerely
Saul Billingsley, FIA Foundation Executive Director
On behalf of Child Health Initiative partners
CC: Governor Kathy Hochul; Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins; Senate Transportation Chair Timothy M. Kennedy; Assembly Ways and Means Chair Helene E. Weinstein; Senate Finance Committee Chair Liz Krueger.
Lower speed limits are a proven tool to address the traffic violence crisis in communities across the country and around the world. Sammy’s Law will give New York City the power to set speed limits in a way that is tailored to neighbourhoods’ actual safety needs. The bill gives the city the ability to lower speed limits to 20mph where necessary and where it makes sense. For more information about Sammy’s Law please visit Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets.
