After 12-Year-Old Was Run Over Near Home, Mom Trying to Fix America’s Roads (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

Amy Cohen's son Sammy was fatally injured by a speeding van near the family's Brooklyn home while walking to soccer practice in 2013

Determined to prevent further deaths, Cohen started Families for Safe Streets, which has become a powerful force for change

As statistics show the problem has gotten much worse, Cohen says: "There are solutions out there”

One afternoon in October 2013, as rush hour traffic was beginning to build outside his family’s Brooklyn apartment, 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein walked out his front door to head to soccer practice at a nearby park — and never returned.

Minutes later, he was struck by a van speeding to make the light on the busy street near his home. He died five hours later.

“I’d read about things like this happening in the paper,” re