Photo: NYC.gov
Feb. 12, 2020 By Kristen Torres
The City Council passed landmark legislation Tuesday that would force drivers who rack up tickets for running red lights or speeding to take a traffic safety course– or else risk getting their car impounded by the Sheriff’s Office.
Council Member Brad Lander, who represents parts of western Brooklyn, sponsored the bill that would require drivers who get more than five red light camera violations or more than 15 speed camera violations in a year to take a defensive driving course mandated by the Department of Transportation.
Drivers who fail to complete the course would have their vehicle seized by the city.
Lander said the bill, informally referred to as the Reckless Driver Accountability Act, was inspired by a 2018 crash where a woman with a history of reckless driving ran a red light and killed two children in Park Slope.
“When Abigail Blumenstein, 4, and Joshua Lew, 1, were killed by a driver with a history of speeding and running red lights right outside my office two years ago, we pledged to do something to intervene with the most reckless drivers before they kill or injure any more of our neighbors,” Lander said in a statement.
A previous version of the bill was much tougher, requiring drivers with with five or more red light or speeding tickets to undergo the course. However, this would have snagged nearly 26,000 drivers—a number too high to manage. The current version is expected to a affect 5,000 drivers city-wide.
“The reason for the lower number of covered vehicles, though, is really a combination of our belief in a restorative justice approach—to repair harm and help people change—and [the] need to run the program effectively, so we can prove it works,” Lander wrote in a tweet last week.
Research by the city’s DOT revealed a correlation between frequent red light and speed camera violators and injury-related crashes.
The bill’s passage comes after a deadly year for drivers and cyclists across the city– with 220 people killed in 2019, up from 204 in 2018. The number of cyclists killed tripled last year, with 29 fatalities.
“Passing this bill is a major step forward in this Council’s fight for safe streets,” Council Speaker Corey Johnson said.
“We should be proud of our efforts to make this law a reality, and we will continue to build on this success in our ongoing fight for a city where people don’t have to live in fear of death or injury from cars.”
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17 Comments
Great thing to do; are we doing anything else for Areas near Schools? Keep up the Good Work!!
Saperstein- Then make your way to a highway if the speed limit in a street isn’t high enough for you. It’s a city street in a high density city, how fast do you think you should be driving?
Aboondy- You’re watching too many propaganda broadcasts on Fox Entertainment.
How do they prove who was driving the car when the violations occurred? You can’t. That’s why they are only able to issue tickets and not points on a license. This will be challenged and this bill will fail. Big waste of time.
they city is doing it wrong. raise the ticket prices to 5 figures for each fine. guaranteed no more reckless drivers. because if they don’t pay, then its prison time. oh wait, I forgot, bail reforms. nobody goes to prison anymore for any crime.
I received 6 tickets in 6 days doing
30 mph in a 20mph. Then i received another 5 from other various spots on queens Blvd, Astoria blvd. Northern Blvd woodhaven blvd you cant avoid it. 30 is normal driving this is ridiculous
we need the same for the MANY cyclists that blow through red lights as if they don’t have to obey the rules of the road.
Motorists cause the VAST majority of accidents but ok
Good idea. I would add DWI to the list offenders required to take safety classes.
I’m sure someone will whine about this, but if you don’t drive like an ass it won’t affect you
Oh the humanity!
How can they prove who was driving? Cameras take pictures from behind.
Put distracted drivers and distracted pedestrians in this Bill too.
LOL. OK.
15 speeding pic violations??? That’s too many. You’re being too nice.
Seriously, 3.
Glad this passed, sad to see it got watered down. More than 30 innocent lives were lost in Queens to reckless drivers (no quote needed) in 2019. We owe to ourselves to be tougher on bad drivers.
how about people that ride motorcycles and bikes they are just as careless