Reckless drivers are finally getting the boot!

After two years of advocacy, I’m thrilled to report that we’ve reached a deal with City Hall on my legislation to hold the city’s most reckless drivers accountable. The City Council will be voting on the bill this Tuesday!

Check out the story in The New York Times today on our first-in-the-country intervention to make our streets safer. 

In March 2018, a reckless driver with a history of red light and speeding violations ran through the intersection in front of our district office at 5th Avenue & 9th Street, killing two small children. After learning about the driver’s long record of unsafe driving -- and the large number of other drivers with similar records still on the road -- we introduced the Reckless Driving Accountability Act to intervene with the most dangerous drivers before they injure or kill one of our neighbors. 

The Reckless Driving Accountability Act will create a pilot program targeting the owners of vehicles that regularly speed through red lights or rack up speed camera tickets. Owners of vehicles with 5 or more red light violations, or 15 or more speed camera violations, over a 12 month period -- approximately the 5000 most reckless vehicles each year -- will be required to take a driver accountability course. 

If a vehicle’s owner or responsible driver fails to take the driver accountability course, the vehicle will be subject to impoundment by the NYC Sheriff. 

The Reckless Driving Accountability Act takes an innovative, data-driven, and restorative justice approach that will make NYC a leader in reducing dangerous driving and saving lives. Thanks to the diligent advocacy of Families for Safe Streets, who shared their painful stories of loss over and over again to make the case for this bill, Transportation Alternatives, a tremendous set of safe streets advocates, lawyers, and data researchers, in partnership with the NYC Department of Transportation, the Law Department, City Hall, the NYC Sheriff, and with Speaker Corey Johnson’s steadfast support, we are ready to move forward with a three-year pilot program to begin getting reckless drivers off the road. 

New research by the NYC Department of Transportation confirms our common sense hunch: there is a correlation between reckless driving and the likelihood of a crash. Those who speed through school zones and blow through red lights time and time again put their neighbors at risk. Under the current program, these vehicles rack up $50 fines, but never face any real accountability. This law will change that. 

The driver accountability program (modeled on a program I helped start with the Center for Court Innovation and the Brooklyn District Attorney at the Red Hook Community Justice Center) takes a restorative justice approach. Skilled facilitators lead participants through a process of self-reflection and discussion culminating in commitments to address specific dangerous driving practices. The program has found that participants are 40% less likely to be rearrested for a traffic-related offense.

The bill also includes a rigorous evaluation of how well the program works to change reckless driving behavior, reduce crashes, and save lives, so we can adjust, extend, and hopefully expand the program after the three-year pilot.   

We’ve got a long way to go to achieve “Vision Zero,” when we don’t lose any more loved ones to preventable crashes. But this is a huge step forward.