Call it a warning sign.
Local leaders want to co-name the intersection of Ocean Parkway and Kings Highway “Victim’s Way — a Vision Zero Initiative” to remember all of the victims speedsters have fatally struck at that notoriously dangerous crossroads and along the whole Ocean Parkway strip — once dubbed Brooklyn’s deadliest roadway — said the chairwoman of Community Board 15 during an Oct. 24 meeting.
“This is something that came up in conversation — we should put something in the district for victims from hit and runs, people that have passed on from pedestrian accidents,” said Theresa Scavo. “In this district, Ocean Parkway is really our number one problem.”
Mayor DeBlasio created Vision Zero in 2014 with the goal of cutting traffic fatalities in half by 2025. Hizzoner reduced city-wide speed limits from 30 miles-per-hour to 25 miles-per-hour, installed more speed cameras, and beefed up enforcement.
The improvements have made progress in reducing the number of deaths on the Kensington-to-Brighton Beach boulevard — but they haven’t gone far enough, and too many pedestrians are still walking away injured, prompting Gov. Cuomo to announce last spring $8.5 million in upgrades to the busy state-controlled road between the Prospect Expressway and Belt Parkway, including improved pedestrian ramps, crosswalks, and traffic signals.
The plan also included much-maligned traffic changes intended to make the speedway safer, such as forbidding drivers from turning onto Avenues J, P, and Kings Highway or making left-hand turns onto Avenues I and U, instead requiring them to make the turns from the parkway’s service road.
On a long stretch of the six-lane boulevard, from Church Avenue to Avenue U, 102 pedestrians had been injured and three were killed from November 2012 to November 2014. After the start of Vision Zero, from December 2014 to June 2017, 88 people had been injured and none killed, according to data from the Department of Transportation.
And at the corner of Ocean Parkway and Kings Highway specifically, speedsters have hit and injured a total of 62 pedestrians since 2009, including 15 in just the last two years — and a motorist killed one person in 2012, according to city data.
The commemorative sign would give a nod to the city’s efforts in trying to end fatal accidents and give grieving families some solace that their loved ones are remembers, said Scavo.
“It’s more or less commemorative to say that at least Vision Zero is trying to help with the critical situation on Ocean Parkway,” she said. “That maybe it would be something that a family could say at least something’s being remembered about the tragedy that happened to them.”
The board voted 21 to 11, with two abstentions, to approve the co-naming, which will now go to Councilman David Greenfield’s (D–Midwood) office for consideration to bring to the Council. Greenfield declined to comment.
The proposal may face resistance in the Council, however, since city guidelines typically restrict street co-namings to honoring specific individuals or organizations.
