Safety Fixes For Park Slope Street Where 2 Kids Died Clear Hurdle

PARK SLOPE, NY — Community Board 6's transportation committee voted to approve the city's plan to redesign a stretch of Ninth Avenue and make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists following a crash that killed two children.

The proposal, unanimously approved by the committee on Thursday night, calls to add pedestrian islands, protected bike lanes, shorten crossing distances and more to make the street safer.

"It's very clear the death has to end," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference last month announcing the redesign. "These are children we're losing who should be living out their whole lives. It has to end and it can end."

The Department of Transportation's proposal comes after Dorothy Bruns ran a red light at Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue and plowed into five people, killing Joshua Lew, 1, and Abigail Blumenstein, 4. The crash also injured their mothers Lauren Lew and Ruthie Ann Blumenstein, who also lost her unborn daughter.

Bruns, who doctors repeatedly told to stay off the road because of health conditions, was later indicted on manslaughter charges, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office said.

Before the tragic crash, Ninth Avenue has been a dangerous road for years and was the third most high crash corridor in the borough, the DOT said. There have 137 pedestrians, cyclists and car passengers injured at the stretch from 2012 to 2016 with four pedestrians killed there from 2012 to 2018.

The DOT's plan would add fixes like a narrower roadway and larger median buffers on Ninth Street from Prospect Park West to Third Avenue to cut down on speeding.

Plans also call to add nearly a mile of protected bike lanes along the street and move the parking lane next to the travel lane to help cut down on double parking along the street.

The city also wants to build pedestrian islands near sidewalks which they said would force drivers making right turns to slow down, give them better visibility of cyclists and shorten the distance people have to cross intersections.

DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg previously said the agency hopes to add the safety improvements to the street by the end of the summer. The plans will next be voted on by Community Board 6's executive committee.

Image: Nicholas Rizzi/Patch