In Wake of 9-Year-Old’s Death, Locals Demand NYPD Traffic Enforcement

Hundreds of locals holding candles and hoisting signs marched along DeKalb Avenue to the 88th Precinct’s community council meeting last night to express their concerns about neighborhood traffic enforcement following the death of 9-year-old Lucian Merryweather, who was pinned under an out-of-control SUV two-and-a-half weeks ago.

“We are a family with small children and we’re clearly concerned about their safety,” said Rebecca Slife, 32, who marched with her husband and sister-in-law to the meeting at the French-Speaking Baptist Church on Clermont Avenue. “And if there’s any way we can impact the priorities of the local precinct for their sake, it feels like we did some kind of justice for the small child that was killed.”

At the beginning of the march, Hilda Cohen, the co-founder of Make Brooklyn Safer, a new group that focuses on traffic safety, rallied the crowd to push police to issue more tickets for speeding and drivers’ failure to yield to pedestrians.

“It is time for us to speak up and speak loud, that our safety must be a priority to those in cars, to those in uniform and to those in public office,” Cohen said. “We have the voice to say that any child’s death is one too many. We have the capability to enforce the laws, to prevent reckless driving by prioritizing pedestrian safety over convenience or unlawful speed. We have the intellect and compassion to not blame the victim.”

Make Brooklyn Safer compiled a street map that records unsafe street conditions and traffic in Fort Greene and nearby neighborhoods. Locals can use the map to tag spots where they witnessed traffic violations, write details about the unsafe conditions and add photos. At the Community Council meeting, Cohen presented a copy of the map to the Deputy Inspector Scott Henderson.

Henderson told attendees that traffic accidents are down in the precinct, with 175 fewer accidents reported so far this year, than at this time last year. According to Henderson, prior to Merryweather’s death, no traffic fatalities had been reported in the 88th Precinct since 2008.

But Fort Greene resident Jacob Stevens was quick to tell Henderson he was mistaken.

“My wife [Clara Heyworth] was killed two years ago on the corner of Vanderbilt and DeKalb, and the NYPD Accident Investigation [Squad] did not investigate,” Stevens said. “The DA did not prosecute. The guy was released that night. He got his car back … I’m glad to see that there was a different response to the death of the 9-year-old boy two weeks ago.”

Andrew Byrd, 59, the driver who allegedly pinned Merryweather under his SUV, was charged with criminally negligent homicide, three counts of assault in the second degree, reckless endangerment in the first degree, operation in the opposite direction of a one-way roadway or rotary traffic island, failure to yield when turning left, two counts of driving on sidewalks, reckless endangerment in the second degree, criminal mischief in the fourth degree and reckless driving, according to the Kings County District Attorney’s office.

“That’s not a usual thing in situations like this, for an incident that’s not alcohol or drug-related, for an individual to be charged with a crime,” Henderson said.

Henderson added that 88th Precinct officers wrote 7,500 traffic summonses so far this year. But, he said, that’s not the only answer to solving traffic problems on the precinct’s streets.

“If we have an accident at a particular location, the first thing we do is we look at that intersection and we see what caused that accident,” he said. “Was it human error? Was it a vehicle that was involved? Was it a bike? Was it a pedestrian? Was it their fault? Was it the traffic signals that caused the accident?”

“We do that study in conjunction with the Department of Transportation, community boards get involved, and then based on that analysis, sometimes we’ll make changes,” he added. “We’ll say a street light needs to be placed at that intersection, or we need to place speed bumps somewhere, or the roadway needs to be grated, or a two-way street needs to be a one-way, or [we’ll] restrict the turns because that’s what’s causing the accident. Then after we do that analysis, we want to educate the public — we want to make sure that bicyclists know the rules of the road, drivers obey the rules of the road and pedestrians are in the street safely.”

But some residents argued that enforcement needs to be even stronger, as they often feel in harm’s way while walking and driving on local streets.

“I can tell you right now that there isn’t a day that goes by where I either haven’t been either almost struck by another car or almost hit by a car, and I can tell you there are plenty of people that have said the same thing, and it happens every single day,” said Stephanie Alleyne, who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years. “And it happened a few weeks ago right in our neighborhood.”

In response, Henderson said it’s difficult to place police on every corner, because not every officer is certified to issue speeding summonses. He said that he has sent a request for additional precinct officers to be trained for this certification.

Cohen said that over the past two years, more than 200 pedestrians and cyclists have been injured in the 88th Precinct. During that time, she said, less than eight tickets have been issued for failure to yield to pedestrians — though Henderson could not confirm that statistic at the meeting.

“We have our own reminders as a community to slow down, to yield to pedestrians, to put away the phone,” Cohen said. “But until we have real substantial penalties for drivers who don’t slow down, who drive recklessly and fail to yield the right of way, our own reminders will not be enough.”

The next step, Cohen added, is to push the city’s Department of Transportation and local elected officials to make changes.

“How many more children need to become statistics before the rules of the road are enforced?” she asked.