BK Locals Want Crossing Guards After Crash That Killed 7-YO Student

BROOKLYN, NY — It's been nearly two months since 7-year-old Kamari Hughes was fatally struck by an NYPD tow truck in Fort Greene — and his empty school desk, now decorated by his schoolmates, serves as a constant reminder.

Inspired by the young child's death, advocates on Thursday will convene at the site of the crash to draw attention to another glaring and deadly absence at Brooklyn schools: crossing guards.

On the last day of school in 2023, cardboard cutouts will stand guard at Brooklyn intersections where crossing guards should be — something Mayor Eric Adams could make happen with greater recruitment efforts and a restored budget for the city's crossing guards, according to organizers.

“With expanded city funding, real crossing guards could be protecting our children as they walk to school,” said Kay White, the PTSO co-chair of the Brooklyn Prospect Downtown Elementary School, where Hughes was a second grader.

“Instead, we have only these cardboard cutouts."

Organizers with the Brooklyn Street Safety Coalition, created in the wake of Hughes' death, will also recruit new crossing guards and collect signatures for a petition addressed to Adams.

Hughes was fatally struck on Oct. 26 about 7:52 a.m. by an NYPD tow truck attempting to make a right turn on North Portland Avenue from Myrtle Avenue, according to the NYPD.

His memory looms every day at his school, where his desk sits empty but is now decorated by the child's peers, White said.

"That space in that desk is a constant reminder," White said.

For White, Hughes' death was a call to action. She joined the coalition to help ensure kids' protection across the city.

Things have become particularly dire after the city decided to eliminate 483 crossing guard positions in fiscal year 2024 to save costs, all of which are vacant positions, according to the New York Daily News.

"Kids are being killed at an alarming rate," White said of traffic violence.

"These streets and intersections have already proven to be deadly, and we need the mayor to restore funding to the city’s crossing guards before 2024.”

And the stakes are quite high. A Streetsblog analysis from 2022 found that on school days, streets near schools were on average more dangerous than other streets across the city. Streets near schools with many poor students and students of color were even more dangerous, according to the report.

Brooklyn has been rocked by a series of dramatic, fatal crashes in recent months that have renewed calls for street safety improvements.

On Nov. 2, 79-year-old Yvonne Sandiford was fatally struck by back-to-back hit-and-run drivers in Bed-Stuy, a tragic crash that was repeated less than two weeks later when another man was fatally struck by two hit-and-run drivers in Borough Park, police said.