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The city’s Department of Transportation will soon install a traffic light at a Queens intersection where a 7-year-old girl was fatally struck in February.
The decision was made after the DOT conducted an intersection control study at 45th Street and Newtown Road, where the crash occurred, commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced this week.
“No loss of life on our streets is acceptable and we continue to keep Dolma Naadhum and her family in our hearts,” Rodriguez said.
Police said Naadhum was struck by a 46-year-old woman who rolled through a stop sign on Feb. 17. According to the DOT, she had a learner’s permit but was driving alone, and had a legal amount of alcohol in her system.
After the crash, Naadhum’s 11-year-old brother Tsering Tashi Takgye created a petition to get a traffic light installed at the intersection where it happened. Local elected leaders joined the family in their demands at an event honoring the seven-year-old days later.
“I miss my sister every second. My family’s mission is to make sure this horrible tragedy doesn’t happen to any other family,” Takgye wrote. “There must be a traffic light instead of a stop sign for the crosswalk on Newtown Road and 45th Street, as well as 44th Street, and 46th Street. These are the intersections that my sister and I would cross to go to Astoria Heights Playground, which was my sister’s favorite place in the world.”
A spokesperson for the DOT said the department has already made safety improvements at the sight of the crash, including improved crosswalk markings, a curb extension and day-lighting. The traffic light will be installed there in May.
“I am glad the city is installing a traffic signal at the site of Dolma’s tragic death, in accordance with her family’s wishes,” said state Sen. Michael Gianaris of Queens, who was among those calling for the measure. “I hope we keep her memory alive as we enact even more critically necessary pedestrian safety measures.”
The crash outraged community members, with some locals organizing online and banding together in person to demand the NYPD better enforce traffic laws in the area. Alex Duncan, who lives in Astoria and moderates the /micromobilityNYC subreddit encouraged followers who live in the neighborhood to attend the community’s monthly precinct meeting. He said focusing on just one intersection in the area is not enough.
“Newtown Road and many others need systemic change along the entire corridor, but people get bogged down on individual intersections and tiny changes,” he said. “Installing a traffic light at a single intersection where a tragedy happened is like going to the place a person was shot and declaring it a gun free zone — it makes it look like the city is doing something, but does virtually nothing to address the underlying problem.”
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