Requires a 60 day license suspension for any driver convicted of 3 or more speeding violations within a school zone, committed within an 18 month period of time

Title of bill

An act to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to requiring the suspension of the license to operate a motor vehicle of any person convicted of three or more violations of school zone speed limits within eighteen months

Purpose of bill

Requires a 60 day license suspension for any driver convicted of 3 or more speeding violations within a school zone, committed within an 18 month period of time

Summary of specific provisions

Section 1 amends Paragraph (b) of Subdivision 2 of Section 510 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law by adding a new Subparagraph 18, mandating the suspension of a license to operate a motor vehicle when a license holder accumulates three or more speeding offenses within a school zone, within a period of eighteen months.

Section 2 establishes the effective date.

Justification

In New York City alone, more than one million children travel to public schools every day. According to statistics from the New York City Department of Transportation, more than 1,000 children under the age of 17 were involved in motor vehicle crashes in 2015, with two hundred of those incidents resulting in serious injuries. In 2015, nine children were killed. In fact, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury deaths in the City for children ages 5-14, and speeding is the driver action responsible for most of these fatalities. Expanded across New York State, these statistics only grow worse in numbers.

Unique from older adults, children between the ages of 0-14 are five times more likely to die if they are struck by a car traveling at 35 miles per hour versus a vehicle traveling at 25 miles per hour. Posted speed limit reductions within school zones exist to counter this very reality. The problem of speeding in school zones is also a real one, with the New York City Department of Transportation determining in 2013 that at over 100 schools surveyed, drivers exceeded speed limits between 75%-100% of the time within a quarter-mile of school buildings. At 306 schools surveyed, drivers were observed speeding between 25% and 75% of the time.

Increasing penalties upon drivers who chose to ignore reduced speed limits within school zones is a commonsense approach to decreasing the statistics behind this epidemic. This legislation seeks to establish the compulsory suspension of a driver's license for a period of sixty days when a driver is convicted of three or more speeding violations within a school zone, over an eighteen month period. Given the gravity of the situation at hand, this is only a first step in reducing pedestrian crashes involving children.

Prior legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

To be determined.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the first of September next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law.