In June 2015, a 1-year-old purebred pekingese puppy named Buster was struck and killed outside its home by a motorist driving on Hickory Road in the Village of Manorhaven.
The accident touched off a campaign by the dog’s owners, Adrianne Altman and Carmine De Meo, to lower and enforce the speed limit in the village to protect residents as well as pets.
“When the incident occurred, there were children playing across the street in their driveway and part of the road,” said Altman, a small business owner and former assistant pre-school teacher. “Manorhaven has been having an issue lately with speeding drivers, car accidents, and illegal parking.”
Both Altman and DeMeo, a former volunteer firefighter and retired field supervisor for the Port Washington Water District, said the motorist was driving at an excessive speed at the time of the accident, which they both witnessed.
“He was going well over the speed limit,” Altman said. “It could’ve easily been one of the kids.”
On Feb. 25, Manorhaven trustees approved a proposal by Altman and De Meo to reduce the speed limit to 25 m.p.h. throughout the village legislation known as Buster’s law in their dog’s honor.
Altman and De Meo said after the accident they went to Manorhaven Village Hall to inform officials of what happened and called for something to be done.
Village Clerk Leslie Gross invited Altman and De Meo to speak to Mayor Giovanna Giunta and the Board of Trustees at a meeting on June 25, 2015, Altman said.
The response, they said, was positive but more work needed to be done.
Over the next few months Altman and De Meo said, they went to door to door with a petition to get support from their fellow residents to reduce the speed limit from 30 m.p.h. to 20 m.p.h. — five less than what was eventually approved.
Altman said the residents agreed that speeding drivers were a serious issue in Manorhaven and that the problem needed to be addressed immediately.
But several residents said 20 m.p.h. was too low.
“Trying to get the new speed limit law passed from 30 m.p.h. to 20 m.p.h. was proving to be easier said than done, to say the least,” Altman said.
She said the campaign got a major boost when she spoke with Rod King, the founder of 20’s Plenty for Us, a national group that supports communities which want to lower the speed limit to 20 m.p.h. on their roads.
King, she said, then gave her the title of “Lead Activist” for the Manorhaven 20’s Plenty For Us campaign.
But residents continued to object to a 20 m.p.h. speed limit.
“People wanted it faster,” Altman said.
Altman then discovered that Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill in 2014 that authorizes New York to lower its default speed limits from 30 m.p.h. to 25 m.p.h.
She also learned from a 2015 accident report for Manorhaven, which was provided by The Nassau County Police Department, that law enforcement officers wrote 50 vehicle accident reports in Manorhaven, accidents involving 91 vehicles.
With this information, Altman and De Meo created a campaign to lower Manorhaven’s speed limit to 25 m.p.h.
After eight months of working on the campaign to lower the speed limit in Manorhaven, their dream of making a safer Manorhaven became a reality when at the public hearing on the Feb. 25 of this year Board of Trustees unanimously voted to approved Buster’s Law.
The meeting’s agenda said the new speed limit was to promote health, comfort, safety and welfare to village residents.
But, Altman said, she does not feel her job is over.
The first part of the Manorhaven 25 m.p.h. initiative was to get the entire board of trustees to approve the 25 m.p.h. speed limit on all village roads, she said. The second part is to ensure that the new speed limit is enforced.
“As lead activist for the Manorhaven 25 m.p.h. campaign, I will continue to work with The Incorporated Village of Manorhaven officials and the two Nassau County POP Unit Officers assigned to our village who will be enforcing the law, and issuing tickets to speeding drivers,” Altman said.
Altman and De Meo said the law would not have been passed without the help of Cuomo, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas, Nassau County Legislator Delia De Riggi Whitton, Councilwoman Dina De Giorgio, the Nassau County Police Department 3rd Precinct, and its traffic safety unit, officials and staff at The Village of Manorhaven, and to all the residents in Manorhaven who signed the petition.
Altman and Meo said they want their story to inspire and also encourage everyone who wants to make a difference in their own village or town.
“Know that with hard work and determination, together with the support of officials and residents, anything can be accomplished,” Altman said.
