Senate Bill S5529

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S5529

SPONSOR: SANDERS
 
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 two violations of school zone speed limits within eighteen
months

 
PURPOSE OF BILL:

Requires a 60 day license suspension for any driver convicted of 2
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 two 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
75t-100t 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 two 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:
2019-20: A.704 Reported from transportation; referred to codes

2017-18: A.5266 Referred to transportation

 
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.