‘LIKE AN ANGEL’
Safer streets sought after girl, 7, run over
The tragic death of a 7-yearold girl struck by an armored truck has left her entire Brooklyn neighborhood reeling — and prompted advocates to call on the city to take drastic measures to keep streets safe.
More than 100 mourners held a vigil Saturday night in a Bath Beach playground to remember Sama Ali, who was riding a scooter across Bath Ave. near Bay 23rd St. with her family on the afternoon of Sept. 28 when a GardaWorld armored truck driver making a left turn struck her.
“She will stay with me every day until I die,” said Doaa Yahia, the girl’s grieving mother, adding that her daughter was constantly on her scooter and received regular lectures about the dangers of cars.
At least 183 people — including 68 pedestrians — have been killed in traffic crashes in New York City so far this year, NYPD data shows. Street safety advocates have for years called for safer street infrastructure in Bathh Beach.h
In May 2019, a van driver killed 3-year- old Elnur Shavkator at the intersection of Benson Ave. and Bay 25th St., just three blocks from the site of little Sama’s death. The young boy was also riding a scooter next to his family.
“I have now been to four vigils in the last two weeks,” said Danny Harris, executive director of the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. “Every situation is different and yet excuses are always the same … The city gives us excuses andd yet not truths when we asked for those changes.”
The stretch of Bath Ave. where Sama was killed has an unprotected bike lane. Her death marks the first traffic fatality at the intersection at Bay 23rd St. since at least June 2012, data show.
Police said the armored truck driver did not see her as he ran into her and was not charged.
Hussein Rabahdah of the Muslim American Society, which has a youth center on Bathh Ave. threeh blblocksk west of where Sama died, said the city should install speed bumps on the street to discourage dangerous driving.
Sama’s oldest brother, Mahmoud, 16, said his sister will always be loved and remembered by the neighborhood.
“She was exactly like an angel,” said Mahmoud. “She never knew how to get mad at anybody. If you did anything bad, the next minute she would forgive you and be playing with you.”