The number of New Yorkers killed on city streets in traffic-related incidents skyrocketed during the first three months of 2022 to an alarming level not seen in years, according to a new study set to be released by a transportation advocacy group.
In the first quarter of this year, 59 people, many of them pedestrians, were struck and killed in the Big Apple — a whopping 44 percent increase from the first three months of 2021.
The jarring number of fatalities is the highest number of deaths on city streets since at least 2014, when then-Mayor Bill de Blasio first rolled out his Vision Zero initiative.
The analysis from Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets shows that half of those killed on city streets, 29 people, were pedestrians.
“From children in Queens to seniors in Brooklyn, too many New Yorkers are killed simply waiting for the bus or crossing the street, and the numbers are only increasing,” said Danny Harris, who heads Transportation Alternatives, in a statement.
Harris called on Albany lawmakers to allow Mayor Eric Adams to reduce speed limits on some city streets and expand the Big Apple’s camera enforcement programs as one way to combat the carnage.
He also demanded that Adams support calls from the Council to dedicate as much as $3.1 billion for additional street redesigns.
Vision Zero made controversial changes to city streets, including cutting speed limits and redesigning streets to make them safer for pedestrians and cyclists, which earned the ire of drivers but plaudits from transit supporters like Harris’ group.
However, those boosters eventually grew critical of de Blasio’s administration for its slow progress on rolling out many of the safety improvements.
The Vision Zero campaign was further hampered since the pandemic struck by a surge in traffic as New Yorkers opted for cars over transit coupled with massive reductions in traffic and parking enforcement by the NYPD.
NYPD stats show that officers issued just 83,000 traffic summons during the first two months of 2022, down a whopping 54 percent from the 182,000 from the same period pre-pandemic in 2019.
And it’s unclear how aggressive the currently tallied enforcement has been.
Investigations by The Post and Streetsblog NYC, an online news organization, revealed how cops in key precincts cleared complaints of illegal parking and other violations in under 15 minutes — or less time than it takes to get a pizza delivered.
“The safety of New Yorkers is our number one priority. We are proud of the work we have done to curb traffic deaths and we understand there is still much more to do,” said Vin Barone, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation.
“The agency is working around the clock to increase the number of safety measures and eliminate traffic deaths in New York City,” he added.
