My 12-year-old son was killed crossing the road — but there’s a way NY can stop this from happening
NY Post
Amy Cohen’s life as a parent took a horrifying turn in 2013, when her 12-year-old son Sammy was fatally struck by a van as he crossed a street near their Park Slope home. In the years since, she’s channeled her never-ending grief into activism, launching a pedestrian safety group in 2014 to safeguard other New Yorkers. Last week, Cohen, 58, led nearly 100 other activists at a rally in Albany to demand action on proposed traffic safety bills, including legislation known as “Sammy’s Law” in honor of her late son.
Here, she shares her story with Joshua Rhett Miller:
On the morning of Tuesday, October 8, 2013, I kissed Sammy and his then-15-year-old sister, Tamar, goodbye before they headed off to school and my husband and I went to work in Manhattan. It was the last time I’d see my precious son alive.
He and his sister were inseparable. In a classic New York way, they shared a room for way too long because we have a two-bedroom apartment and they didn’t want to move. They loved spending time together so much that when we divided the room into two, they were almost sad. They later discovered they could talk through a vent near their beds between the two rooms and they’d chat all night.
Just a few days prior, Sammy and I had a little fight.
He was really driven, really smart and always wanted to go a good high school. He got miffed that weekend when I forced him to join me while visiting an old friend in New Jersey. I wanted to have a family day, but he wanted to stay home and study for the Specialized High School Admissions Test. He was mad at me and held a grudge for like 24 hours.