Super Speeder Talks Bumpy In Assembly
ALBANY — Gov. Hochul’s bid to include the Stop Super Speeders Act in the state budget remains a point of contention in the state Assembly.
Assembly Transportation Chair Bill Magnarelli (D-Syracuse) told Streetsblog that even as core policy items in Gov. Hochul’s executive budget proposal have become clearer, her Stop Super Speeders proposal, which would use in-car devices to cap the speeds of recidivist speeders, has spurred questions among rank-and-file lawmakers in his chamber.
“How does it work? I mean, really, there are a lot of things about due process,” said Magnarelli, trotting out an old argument long put forward by opponents of New York City’s 12-year-old speed-camera program. “There are a lot of things about the actual mechanism of what information is being gathered. There are questions on who owns the vehicle, implementation, out-of-state drivers. I mean, the questions are multiple.”
Other Assembly members have said that Hochul’s proposal merely puts the program in the hands of the New York City Department of Transportation, rather than creating top-down regulations and procedures from the state. But without the state Department of Motor Vehicles — which, sources said, sees the legislation as an additional burden — the governor would simply authorize New York City to create a program to oversee the installation of the speed-governing devices.
Assembly Member Michaelle Solages (D-Nassau County) said the members of the Black Hispanic Puerto Rican Asian Caucus that she chairs are also concerned about how the program will be implemented. Solages, in particular, has concerns that the intelligent speed assistance devices could lead to data privacy issues as automotive technology grows more advanced.
The legislation has evolved since Hochul introduced her budget to include data privacy mandates reminiscent of speed camera regulations, though license plate reader contractors in New York have been under fire for months due to inadvertent data sharing with immigration enforcement.
Solages is also cool on the legislation as a deterrent for regular speeders and is concerned that it would adversely affect marginalized communities in the state.
“What would stop this individual from just hopping into another car? And also, are we trusting New York City to implement this program fairly?” she asked. “Already, Black and brown communities are marginalized and enforced in different ways.”
But studies have also shown that Black and brown New Yorkers face a disproportionate rate of traffic violence, which is often the result of drivers speeding through neighborhoods with unsafe roads.
Assembly Member Khaleel Anderson (D-Queens) feels that there are just too many open questions with the legislation as written in the governor’s budget, but he’s generally supportive of the concept of capping reckless drivers’ speeds, and wants the law on the books in some form.
“We prefer legislation to be standalone bills,” he said. “But if the only way for it to get passed is it going through the budget, then it should go through the budget.”
But he also said he’s “not sure” if he wants Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to push to get the conference’s questions about the Stop Super Speeders Act answered and addressed, if it means another two weeks of negotiations on the budget.
Details are scant on how the program would be administered; under the original legislation, S4045/A2299 from Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn) and Assembly Member Emily Gallagher (D-Brooklyn), speed-limiting devices could be ordered for drivers who had received six speed or red-light camera tickets during a 12-month period.
Gounardes and Gallagher’s statewide bill has faced little support from lawmakers. During negotiations last year, the bill was amended to apply only to motorists who had been caught on speed cameras 16 times (the red-light tickets were excluded). The change meant the bill would affect fewer than 18,000 problem drivers rather than more than 150,000 as originally written.
Yet it never made it out of the Assembly Transportation Committee. The amended bill did pass the state Senate, which also included Gov. Hochul’s less-specific proposal in its one-house budget this year (the Assembly declined to do so).
The proposal has the support of Families For Safe Streets, as well as borough presidents, district attorneys, New York City Council members and community organizations in Heastie’s own backyard.
But the Speaker remains a prominent opponent of the bill. In the past, he had citing those “due process” concerns — a fatuous argument that the owner of the car could be punished for speeding tickets acquired by someone else driving his car (reminder: the speed-limiting device goes in the car that has been caught repeatedly on camera being driven recklessly, regardless of who was driving it — the better to prevent that car from endangering the public.)
The debate about repeatedly reckless drivers was jumpstarted last month when Streetsblog reported that Staten Island cop James Giovansanti notched 547 speed-camera and red-light violations since 2022. Even with thousands of drivers similarly endangering their communities, getting this proposal across the finish line appears to be an uphill battle.
“I’m urging, and I’m asking, all you know, kind of demanding, that all legislators up here in Albany really acknowledge this bill,” said Darnell McCrorey, whose 13-year-old daughter Niyell was hit and killed by a driver in 2024. “We need you guys to speak to Speaker Carl Heastie, let him know that there are people really hurting out here.”
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