Two days after a crash claimed the lives of a mother and her two daughters in Gravesend, street safety advocates and local politicians gathered on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall to demand the passage of the “Stop Super Speeders” bill. The proposed legislation would require the installation of intelligent speed assistance (ISA) technology in the vehicles of reckless drivers.
The bill would mandate the devices be installed in the vehicles of drivers who accumulate 11 or more points on their licenses within 24 months or receive six or more camera-issued speeding or red light tickets in a year. The devices would prevent repeat speeders from traveling more than 5 mph over the speed limit in designated zones.
Speeding contributes to more than 10,000 traffic deaths annually in the U.S. In New York City, a report from Transportation Alternatives shows that traffic violence claimed 193 lives in the first nine months of 2024.
Street safety advocates at Borough Hall on Monday said Saturday’s tragedy could have been prevented if the legislation had been passed.
The victims — Natasha Saada, 34, and her daughters, Diana, 8, and Deborah, 5 — had just left Shabbat services and were walking in a crosswalk on Ocean Parkway when the driver, Miriam Yarimi, 35, struck them. Yarimi, who is facing multiple charges, including three counts each of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, was driving with a suspended license. Records show she had accumulated 99 traffic violations, including 21 speeding tickets, in the past two years, according to How’s My Driving NY.
“Stop Super Speeders” is sponsored by two Brooklyn Democrats, state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Emily Gallagher. The lawmakers introduced the bill last year and are urging their Albany colleagues to pass it this legislative session.
“There is no mechanism in state, city or local law — anywhere in the state of New York — that allows us to prevent a driver like [Yarimi] from getting behind the wheel of a vehicle,” Gounardes said, adding that 75% of drivers continue driving with suspended licenses.
In 2022, the European Union passed legislation requiring all new vehicles to be equipped with ISA technology. Gallagher said Virginia recently passed similar legislation.
“We’ve tried ticketing, we’ve tried suspended license, we’ve tried fines, we’ve tried jail time. None of that has worked,” Gallagher said. “This is a common-sense bill. It just passed in Virginia, and we need to pass it in New York next. There is absolutely nothing getting in our way.”
Advocates present Monday, among them the families of traffic violence victims, said that passing “Stop Super Speeders” would prevent more senseless and violent deaths.
“Bereavement is a lifelong sentence that I would wish on no one,” said Jane Martin-Lavaud, whose 24-year-old daughter Lenora was killed in 2013 when a driver blew through a red light and crashed into the vehicle she was traveling in. “We need to take every measure possible to impede this treacherous behavior. Our state legislature has an opportunity to do something about it and prevent the next crash with this bill sooner rather than later.”
Mary Beth Kelly, whose husband, Dr. Carl Henry Nacht, was killed by an NYPD tow truck while cycling in 2006, expressed frustration with legislators who have not backed the bill.
“We have Assembly members who are not willing to get behind this bill, some in the very neighborhoods where people have died this weekend,” said Kelly, urging local reps to have the political will to “stop the mayhem.”
At a funeral for Saada and her daughters on Sunday, Republican Assembly Member Michael Novakhov, whose district includes Gravesend, excused speeding drivers and said there are “too many” speed cameras in the area, according to Streetsblog NYC.
Other lawmakers at Monday’s rally included Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon (D-Brooklyn); City Council members Shahana Hanif (D-Brooklyn) and Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn); DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez; and candidates for New York City mayor in the 2025 Democratic primary, State Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn) and City Comptroller Brad Lander.
Simon, a co-sponsor of the bill, described the legislation as a “very practical, common-sense bill to address a persistent problem.”
“The speed limiter technology is available to us,” Simon said. “Let’s use it. It will save lives.”
Myrie vowed to get the bill passed this legislative session.
“We stand and say, ‘Enough is Enough already,'” he said. “Lives depend on our actions now, and I will be standing shoulder to shoulder with you to get it done.”
