DMV Reform

A phone call leads to talk of doing more. But is it just talk?

State lawmakers are making it easier for bad drivers to get licenses by allowing student drivers to take a questionable online safety course rather than the previously mandated five-hour, instructor-taught classroom session.

Officials and the media are questioning how Dorothy Bruns, who posed such an obvious and significant threat to public safety, was allowed to drive.

The New York State DMV, which has been without a commissioner for years, is refusing to answer questions about this week's deadly Queens bus crash.

On Thursday, DOT announced plans to paint a bike lane on Classon Avenue, the northbound one-way street where a left-turning driver killed Lauren Davis as she rode her bike to work last April. As bicycle infrastructure goes, it's the bare minimum -- some stripes and stencils to designate space for biking, with no changes to moving lanes or parking. But that hasn't stopped a group of local officials from coming out against it.

The family of Lauren Davis is reeling after a judge at the state Department of Motor Vehicles declined to take action against the motorist who struck and killed her on Classon Avenue last year. Davis's mother, sister, and brother traveled from California to attend the hearing, and said they had been told by the NYPD Highway Patrol detective investigating the crash that he would also be there. He never showed up.

Over the last few years, advocates have called for standardized practices from DMV to suspend or revoke the licenses of drivers whose recklessness behind the wheel leads to serious injury or death. But a review of recent hearings after fatal crashes reveals no apparent rhyme or reason to the penalties for deadly driving meted out by DMV.

Pursuant to a New York State Department of Motor Vehicles hearing, the former cab driver who killed 9-year-old Cooper Stock will regain his driving privileges after six months.

The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles determined that the driver who killed 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein failed to exercise due care and did not have a valid license at the time of the crash. DMV administrative law judge Marc Berger suspended the driver’s license for six months.