Pols Push NYC Speed Limit Power After Park Slope Boy Slain By Car

NEW YORK CITY — New York City should be able to lower speed limits — and save youngsters' lives — without getting a green light from the state, local advocates and officials argued.

Cries of "Sammy's Law" echoed outside City Hall Wednesday as supporters rallied to push state lawmakers to finally pass the long-sought legislation that would control over speed limits to the city.

The law is named after Samuel Cohen Eckstein, a 12-year-old Park Slope boy who was killed by a speeding motorist when he ran after a soccer ball on Prospect Park West near Third Street in 2013.

Advocates, including Cohen Eckstein's parents, argued that lowering neighborhood speed limits to 20 mph would help prevent traffic deaths. And, indeed, deaths are much lower in the city's neighborhood slow zones where that's the speed limit.

"The fatality rate on streets with speed limits of 25+ mph is nearly 5x higher than these zones," Transportation Alternatives tweeted Wednesday, before the rally its advocates helped organize.

"We need lower speed limits citywide. We need Albany to pass Sammy's Law this week."

New York City officials can't set speed limits on the city's streets — that power resides in Albany.

Polls show that 72 percent of New Yorkers surveyed believe that speed limits should be decided locally, according to Transportation Alternatives.

Sammy's Law has been sponsored in the past by state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, but it has fallen short in the legislature. The rally Wednesday, along with a petition drive, aims to pressure lawmakers to pass the bill before an April 1 budget deadline.