Traffic Justice

A few minutes ago, Hayley and Diego's Law cleared a vote in the full State Assembly. The next hurdle is the codes committee in the fractious State Senate, where it's scheduled to come up for a vote tomorrow.

Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, speaking, with Daniel Squadron and Scott Stringer at last year’s rally for Hayley and Diego’s Law. To Squadron’s right are Wendy Cheung, Hayley Ng’s aunt, and Jon Adler, representative for the families of Ng and Diego Martinez. Hayley and Diego’s Law, a bill making its way through Albany that would give … Continued

On Monday DOT marked National Work Zone Awareness Week with a new PR campaign and a call for state legislators to adopt penalties for drivers who endanger road workers -- and, ergo, city pedestrians and cyclists.

Last January, Alexander Aponte struck and killed nine-year-old Ibrihim Ahmed in Ozone Park while driving with a suspended license. He was charged with a misdemeanor -- driving without a license -- that carried a maximum penalty of $500 and/or 30 days in prison. The Queens DA's office said prosecutors couldn't levy more serious charges unless Albany rewrote the laws.

While traffic safety proponents and law enforcers are pushing for measures to clamp down on unlicensed driving, some state legislators want to keep accused drunk drivers on the road.

Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, speaking, with Daniel Squadron and Scott Stringer at last year’s rally for Hayley and Diego’s Law. To Squadron’s right are Wendy Cheung, Hayley Ng’s aunt, and Jon Adler, representative for the families of Ng and Diego Martinez. With the state legislative session underway, Albany will soon turn its attention to business … Continued

In handing down a prison term of 20-to-life for Auvryn Scarlett, the garbage hauler who had stopped taking his epilepsy medication before suffering a seizure behind the wheel and killing two pedestrians last year, Justice Richard Carruthers described the convicted as "a time bomb ready to explode at any moment on the streets of New York." The same could be said of the countless number of motorists roaming the city at any given moment though their licenses have been suspended or revoked due to a history of recklessness. Two such drivers killed three people in separate crashes over the Thanksgiving holiday.

While it took a lot of very public arm-twisting, last week brought a rare bit of good news from Albany: Lawmakers actually passed and adopted legislation to increase penalties for drunk drivers. And they did so, by their standards, with lightning speed. Reacting to the death of 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, who was thrown from a car driven by an intoxicated Carmen Huertas on the Henry Hudson Parkway on October 11, Governor David Paterson last Wednesday signed a bill making it a felony to drive drunk with children as passengers.

City district attorneys and NYPD have reached an agreement that could speed the process of collecting blood evidence from drunk driving suspects who refuse to take breath tests.