Senate Bill S8198A

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S8198

 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 accidents 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.