Serious Traffic Injuries Went Up This Summer Under Adams, Bucking a Trend - Streetsblog New York City

"The city set an ignominious record for serious traffic injuries in the third quarter of 2025, with 940 people sustaining life-altering wounds - a 5-percent increase from the average for the same four-month period since 2022, according to a new analysis of city crash data by Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets. Transportation Alternatives blamed the Adams administration for diluting, halting, and even reversing road safety measures in 2025, though total serious injuries were down between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30."

""The city has spent its time stalling street safety projects and botching the rollout of Sammy's Law," said Ben Furnas, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, referring to a state law passed last year that gives the city the authority to reduce speed limits. Neither the mayor nor the City Council has seized this power to lower speed limits beyond a few short road segments and a handful of tiny neighborhood slow zones."

"TA and Families for Safe Streets were particularly enervated about two major city rollbacks. For instance, the Department of Transportation planned to implement a road diet and protected bike lane on Third Avenue in Sunset Park, but abandoned it after complaints from local businesses. Since 2022, 29 New Yorkers were seriously injured on the 2.5-mile stretch that would have been redesigned, TA's analysis found."

"The group found a similar pattern on McGuinness Boulevard, where 13 New Yorkers were seriously injured between Meeker Street and the Pulaski Bridge over the same timeframe. The redesign along that 2.5-mile-long corridor was watered down after former Adams adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin allegedly took bribes from a politically connected firm in the neighborhood that opposed traffic-calming."

The city recorded 940 serious traffic injuries in the third quarter of 2025, a 5-percent increase from the average for the same four-month period since 2022, according to an analysis by Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets. Transportation Alternatives blamed the Adams administration for diluting, halting and reversing road safety measures in 2025, even as total serious injuries were down between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30. Ben Furnas said the rollout of Sammy's Law was stalled and botched, and city officials have used the law to lower speeds only on a few short segments and tiny neighborhood slow zones. Two major rollbacks involved abandoning a Third Avenue road diet and watering down a McGuinness Boulevard redesign after local opposition and alleged bribery.

Read at Streetsblog