Drivers who are repeatedly found to be speeding by New York City’s traffic cameras could have the choice to speed taken away from them, if a new law proposed by state lawmakers passes.
Sponsored by State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assembly member Emily Gallagher, the bill was announced to the public at an event in Brooklyn on Tuesday. The lawmakers chose the intersection where 31-year-old Katherine Harris was killed by a speeding driver in April.
“If you have a demonstrated history of speeding throughout our city’s streets, of driving recklessly throughout our city’s streets, we are going to literally force you to slow down,” said Gounardes, per amNY.
Under the bill, drivers who receive six or more tickets from a speed camera or red light camera in a year, or get 11 points on their license in an 18-month period, would be subject to a court order to have a speed limiting device installed on their car.
Read: New York City Issued 71 Tickets During 2022 Over Loud Exhausts
The governor would reduce the speed that the vehicle can travel to 30 mph (48 km/h) or 5 mph (8 km) over the city’s speed limit. The program is inspired by ignition interlock devices New York state mandates on the vehicles of drivers who repeatedly drive drunk.
Although New York isn’t the only state to introduce in-car breathalyzers, it would be the first state in America to require the addition of a speed governor on vehicles. A separate bill, introduced last year, would require that all new vehicles registered in New York State feature a speed governor by 2024.
The new rules are being designed to correct the behavior of what Gounardes characterized as the worst three percent of the city’s drivers. He claimed that these people receive ticket after ticket, but don’t change their behavior and face only fines, no license restrictions, since traffic cameras only identify the car in question and not the driver, thus sparing them from receiving points on their license.
“There is a persistent cohort of drivers who are getting five, six, seven, 10, 15, 20 speeding tickets and driving on our streets recklessly without any consequences whatsoever, and just a slap on the wrist, a slap on the wrist every single time,” said Gounardes. “These are the most dangerous drivers on our streets.”
While it is unclear if the state legislature will pass the bill – it has shown resistance to similar measures in the recent past – New York City is in the midst of rising traffic deaths. NYPD statistics find that 131 people have already died in traffic accidents in the city in 2023, and that deaths have been mounting since 2018. Meanwhile, the U.S. at large is facing historically high rates of on-road deaths.
