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As crashes spike, death of Harlem mom renews calls for street safety
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Apr 6, 2022
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By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Apr 6, 2022
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The death of a Harlem mom has amplified calls for Mayor Eric Adams to do more to protect pedestrians as the city contends with a 40% spike in deadly crashes this year.
The latest fatality came on Monday, as Jennifer Tolliver, 38, succumbed to injuries she suffered on March 28th. Footage of the incident obtained by the Daily News showed Tolliver walking with her 6-year-old son on 145th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard when the driver jumped the curb and ran them over. The 6-year-old boy was hospitalized in critical condition, police said, and remained in an intensive care unit on Wednesday. The 68-year-old driver remained at the scene and has not been arrested, police said.
“Jennifer Tolliver’s death is a tragedy and every loss of life on our streets is avoidable,” Department of Transportation spokesperson Vin Barone said in a statement. “We will study this location for potential improvements, as we do with every fatality, and continue working every day to eliminate traffic deaths in New York City.”
At least 60 people have died in traffic crashes this year, the highest total since 2013, the year before former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero safety initiative took effect with the goal of eliminating traffic deaths. Pedestrians and cyclists made up slightly more than half of recorded fatalities in the first four months of this year.
On Wednesday, a driver in Crown Heights also jumped a curb and rammed into a building on Nostrand Avenue, injuring six people, including two children.
Transportation officials said the uptick in crashes reflects a nationwide trend. But Harlem Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan said that Tolliver’s death highlighted the city’s failure to act proactively to prevent traffic violence
"As we mourn the loss of another Harlemite, we call on Mayor Adams to make a greater investment in Harlem’s infrastructure,” Jordan said. She added that the intersection where Tolliver was killed has long been among the most dangerous in New York City, and that “the community has constantly asked for safety measures to be put in place.”
Since 2011, at least five people have died within one block of the site of Tolliver’s death, according to data provided by Transportation Alternatives.
The lawmaker also called on Adams to fund the Streets Plan, which requires the city to redesign thousands of intersections each year and to build miles of bike and bus lanes.
Leaders of the City Council have expressed alarm in recent weeks that the administration has not committed adequate funding to hit the ambitious benchmarks – and recently pushed Adams to invest $3.1 billion toward the effort.
“With traffic violence rising for an unprecedented fourth year in a row, funding the NYC Streets Plan is a matter of life or death,” Danny Harris, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives said in a statement. “We need our leaders to scale proven tools that save lives now.”
In response, DOT spokesperson said the administration was committed to redesigning 1,000 intersections, upgrading highly-used bike lanes, and pushing Albany to allow the city to scale up camera enforcement.
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Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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