Brooklyn residents say dangerous area to blame for 3 crashes that killed 3 children

PARK SLOPE (WABC) -- Residents in Brooklyn are demanding safety measures after a third middle school student has been killed by a car in the same area in the past year.

They were three beautiful children and all were students at MS 51 in Park Slope. All were struck and killed on the streets of Brooklyn in the last year.

"When you lose a child, you never recover, you never pick up the pieces," said Amy Cohen, victim's mother.

Amy's son, 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein, was killed three weeks before his bar mitzvah. His death was followed by Joie Sellers, the summer after she graduated from middle school. Eyewitness News is told her hit and run driver, stole a van and her life.

And then last Thursday, a third classmate, Muhamed Uddin, who was now a freshman in High School, was killed while walking home from school. Officials report he had the right-of-way and was in the crosswalk.

"And he was hit by a driver who failed to yield and left the scene. We've got to get drivers accountable, real enforcement, or we will never get to vision zero," Councilman Brad Lander said.

Amy Cohen has turned her family's tragedy into a mission and is working tirelessly to make city streets safer for other children. Her group, Families for Safe Streets, is responsible for reducing the speed limit to 25 mph.

"Every 30 hours, someone is killed in traffic in New York. Every 11 seconds someone is injured. It is horrifying, three from one school, but the numbers in New York are huge," Cohen said.

The class of 2014 from MS 51 has moved onto high school. But many teachers and younger students remember the victims as grief descends on this school community again, for a third time in a year.