Death Of 14-Year-Old Delivery Boy Renews Calls For Speed Cameras

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — The death of a 14-year-old delivery boy in the South Slope has renewed calls for automatic traffic enforcement cameras across New York City.

Edwin Ajacalon, a 14-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, was working his job delivering food on Saturday night when he was hit by a car crossing Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street.

Police have not said whether the driver was speeding, but security camera footage published by the New York Daily News appears to show a car traveling faster than others in the area when it hit the boy. It's also not clear if the boy was crossing the street against the light.

Regardless, the driver needs to be held accountable, according to Paul White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives.

"Even if it turns out that Edwin was crossing against the light, what seems irrefutable is that the car was going at an excessively high rate of speed," White told Patch. "And in those kinds of situations the driver can and should be held accountable for those actions."

Installing more traffic cameras around the city would help hold drivers accountable if they speed and reduce pedestrian injuries overall, White said.

"We know what works to reduce speeding," he said. "Areas where speed cameras have been deployed have reduced vehicular speeding by 60 percent."

Earlier this year, a bill passed the state assembly that would have increased the number of speed cameras New York City is allowed to use from 140 to 750 and expand the areas where the city could place them. The bill was stalled, though, in the state Senate, according to Streetsblog.

At a vigil Monday night at the site of Ajacalon's death, state Senator Jesse Hamilton pledged to "make this happen next year in Albany," referring to expanded speed cameras.

"They call it an accident, but if you willfully drive fast, if you willfully text while driving, if you willfully make a telephone call while driving, then you hit someone and kill them, how can you call it an accident?” Hamilton said, according to Streetsblog. "You willfully disregard the lives of others because of a person’s selfishness."

Those calls were echoed Monday night by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and City Councilman Carlos Menchaca. A spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio called speed cameras "a high priority."

"DOT and NYPD are reviewing the incident as well as the area for potential safety improvements as we do after any kind of tragic event like this," the spokesman, Ben Sarle, told Patch in an email.

And instead of trying to cram a bill through the state senate again, White said, Gov. Andrew Cuomo could include the cameras in his executive budget, which would have a higher chance of getting passed as part of a bigger package.

"The governor lowered the speed limit three years ago. He stood with families for safe streets and announced that the speed limit in New York City was being lowered from 30 to 25," White said.

"Now he needs to play a leadership role in ensuring we can enforce it."

Cuomo's office did not immediately return an email from Patch seeking comment.

AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File