Gov. Kathy Hochul and NYC Mayor Eric Adams are speeding up their plan to lower speed limits with a new law that could put top speeds on some city streets down as low as 10 mph. NBC New York’s Myles Miller reports.
Speed limits on New York City streets could soon be lowered — some to as low as 10 mph — after a family's heartbreak inspired a bill to drop top speeds in order to prevent further tragedies.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Sammy's Law into effect on Thursday, giving the city the ability to lower the speed limit to 20 mph on most streets in the five boroughs.
"It didn't have to happen, these accidents are preventable. It's been proven over and over reduce the speed limits pedestrian crashes and serious injuries go way down," said Hochul.
The law will allow the city's Department of Transportation to set lower limits on individual streets as low as 10 mph. Roads of three or more lanes outside of Manhattan would remain at 25 mph.
The law is named for Sammy Cohen Eckstein, who was 12 years old when he was struck and killed by a speeding driver near Prospect Park West in 2013. His mother, Amy Cohen, led a group of grieving parents who spent years pushing for the law.
"For me, it's as if time has stood still for a decade," said Cohen, noting her son would've been 23 this year.
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The bill signing was held at MS 51 in Park Slope, where Sammy was a student. Two other students at the school were also hit and killed by cars.
Mayor Adams said he's been standing with Sammy's family since the very beginning.
"There's no where you're going in this city, that you need to be speeding in the city to get there," said Adams.
Harold and Debbie Kahn were alongside the governor as the bill was signed Thursday. The couple have been fighting to get the speed limit on NYC streets lowered since their son was killed in 2009 when he was struck and run over by an MTA bus.
"I still have the pin that says 20 is plenty. We tried to get it to 20 miles, then it took 10 years of fighting," said Harold Kahn. The father said he hopes Adams will lower the speed limits because "he was in our corner since he was borough president, hopefully he remembers that we're still in the fight."
The bill itself doesn't lower the speed limits, it only makes it possible for the city to do so. Other families have questioned if Adams will actually lower the speed limit, given two traffic-calming street redesign projects were scrapped.
But Hochul said she believes the mayor will lower the speed limits.
"He will do it, he stood here today in front of grieving families. He has supported this particular law from the very beginning," the governor said.
