Nearly two years after a baby died from burns caused by a malfunctioning steam radiator, the New York City Council has overwhelmingly passed a bill introduced in his memory.<\/p>\n
Ben Z’s Law<\/a>\u00a0requires radiator inspections every two years in apartments and common areas where children under 6 years old live. It exempts owner-occupied units, such as co-ops and condos.<\/p>\n “Another child doesn’t have to die for the laws to change”<\/p>\n The bill’s passage with a supermajority in the City Council marks a key victory for Binyomin Zachariah Kuravsky’s parents, who have been advocating for the change since their son’s death<\/a> in January 2024.<\/p>\n “Another child doesn’t have to die for the laws to change,” Alex Kuravsky, Binyomin’s father, said.<\/p>\n Councilmember Farah Louis, who sponsored Ben Z’s Law, said the process involved intense negotiations to garner support from a wide coalition of members, unions and special interest groups.<\/p>\n “The hardest part of this process has been working with the administration, helping them to understand that this has to be a priority,” Louis said.<\/p>\n Supporters gathered on the steps of City Hall before Thursday’s vote to push for change.<\/p>\n “Living in a rent-stabilized apartment like we do, does not mean that its maintenance and safety are ever again overlooked,” Bessie Kuravsky, Binyomin’s mother, said.<\/p>\n Other New Yorkers have suffered steam injuries and deaths<\/p>\n The issue is deeply personal for other New Yorkers, too. Alexander Pacheco recalled a radiator steam injury that left him with a prosthetic leg and burns over most of his body.<\/p>\n “He spent almost a year between rehab and the hospital,” Pacheco’s translator said.<\/p>\n Binyomin’s death in 2024 echoed an earlier tragedy.<\/p>\n In 2016, the Ambrose sisters died the same way in the Bronx. Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio called it “a freak accident, a series of painful coincidences.”<\/p>\n