A stenciled painting at the site on 95th street and West End Avenue where Jean Chambers was hit and killed by an SUV driver. (CB7 is a reference to Community Board 7, which critics say has been slow to approve street safety changes.)
A law that went into effect on Saturday allows prosecutors to charge drivers who hit pedestrians or bicyclists who have the right of way with misdemeanors under the criminal code. That’s right, killing someone with your car could actually be a crime.
Drivers who hit and injure pedestrians and bicyclists in New York City are almost never charged with crimes, even when the police determine them to be at fault. Nine-year-old Cooper Stock had the right of way when a cab driver hit and killed him at 97th street and West End Avenue in January, but the cabbie was never charged. Jean Chambers, hit and killed at 95th and West End, appeared to also have the right of way, but the driver who hit her likewise did not face charges.
Under the new law, motorists who hit a pedestrian or bicyclist and cause a physical injury can be charged with a misdemeanor, which cariies a sentence of up to 30 days in jail and $250 in fines. They can also be subject to an additional $250 fine as a civil penalty. But the driver won’t be in violation of the law “if the failure to yield and/or physical injury was not caused by the driver’s failure to exercise due care.”
There are also some exceptions for government workers: “This section shall not apply to persons, teams, motor vehicles, and other equipment working on behalf of the city of New York, the state of New York or the federal government while actively engaged in work requiring the presence of a motor vehicle in a location that interferes with the right of way of a pedestrian or person riding a bicycle.”
To read the full text of the law click here.
Of course, police and prosecutors have to actually decide to charge someone under this law. It’s not clear how much leeway they’ve had up until now — some say that New York’s district attorneys could have charged many more people with crimes for hurting pedestrians but simply haven’t made it a priority. With this new law, we’ll see if anything changes.
Through July, most precincts in the city — including the 20th and 24th on the Upper West Side — have been issuing more tickets for dangerous driving, according to WNYC.
Photo by Liz Patek.
You just criminalized the random statistical everyday foibles of confused, harried, stressed out, and distracted human nature. You have turned everyday mistakes into reckless driving. You are the same people destroying your children’s physical instincts and future safety by literally rubber padding playgrounds. This is already the safest large city in the country for pedestrians. Throwing a grief striken driver in jail for a month will destroy many a life, and the lives of the kids and spouses who rely on them. They will lose their job, then likely their apartment, and then their ability to find a new job. All because UWS busy body neurotics spaz out about authoritarianism over compassion for both drivers and pedestrians, as if stop lights and right turn rules absolve pedestrians of the responsibility to look around, which on the UWS, no, very much they do not. Instead they move like cattle, following the first risk taker straight into incoming traffic as the light is changing. Their righteous reliance on rules and the dominance of crowds kills them. Sociologists am really should study authoritarians more often, why they turn into statistical hypochondriacs.
“Throwing a grief stri[c]ken driver in jail for a month will destroy many a life, and the lives of the kids and spouses who rely on them. They will lose their job, then likely their apartment, and then their ability to find a new job.”
Maybe knowing that this will happen will be motivation to the drivers — who now don’t give a darn because they don’t have to — to slow down and look for pedestrians.
And, anyway: What about the lives of the dead pedestrians, and their “kids and spouses”? Don’t you believe *they* are entitled to some protection, too?
Anyone who is “confused, harried, stressed out, and distracted” shouldn’t be driving. It’s that simple.
It seems pretty ridiculous to me to assert that in any of the recent tragic incidents the driver “knowing they could be changed with a crime” would have changed anything. It’s not as though any driver is thinking “wow awesome, I can get away with vehicular homicide… Let’s see how many people I can hit”. There is no benefit accrued to the perpetrator of this act (as opposed to most punishable crime) and clearly any remotely sane human will do nearly anything possible to avoid potentially taking another life. I support any attempt to ameliorate traffic fatalities, however we really need to ask ourselves in this situation what is the root cause, and how do we address it, and I think it’s pretty clear that the root cause is not criminal misfit drivers that lurk behind every steering wheel.
This law applies to pedestrians and bicyclists who have been struck and injured by a car while they had the right of way.
I feel like I have to say that again. Pedestrians and bicyclists who had THE RIGHT OF WAY, violated by drivers.
Why wouldn’t it be a misdemeanor or felony to kill or injure someone who has the right of way? Who cares whether the driver “did nearly anything possible to avoid potentially taking another life”? I’d argue that if a driver hits someone who has the right of way, that’s probably not true.
fight the power.
Yet another law the police will simply not enforce. Big deal.
Interesting how government workers are exempt. I’ve seen the NYCHA garbage crew operating their vehicles on sidewalks near the Douglass Houses, turning corners quickly and generally behaving like a bunch of lawless thugs. Now I know why…immunity from prosecution!
Ever wait for the ‘walking man’ signal to allow you to cross an avenue and watched in horror as vehicles race past totally ignoring any speed limit?
One reason that so many drivers treat our avenues as if they are speedways is the LACK OF (a) A VISIBLE POLICE PRESENCE, and (b) the ABSENCE OF SPEED DETERRENTS LIKE LICENSE-PLATE CAMERAS.
If the city is serious about its “Vision Zero” program then it needs to give it “TEETH” in the form of a few speed-traps featuring officers with fat ticket books AND anti-speeding cameras. The revenue from the latter will defer the costs of implementing both.
Proof? Try driving north out of Washington, D.C. via Connecticut Avenue enroute to the I-495 “Beltway” The moment you cross that invisible line into Bethesda, MD you will see very prominent “35 M.P.H. SPEED LIMIT” signs and the less-prominent warning about camera-surveillance.
Go a mere five m.p.h. over the speed limit and you will receive a payable-by-mail speeding fine in a week or so. Which means that the NEXT time you drive through Bethesda you will DEFINITELY FOLLOW THE SPEED LIMIT!
And, awrrr, if the poor twiddle dwivers moan-and-groan about NYC being a ‘police state”, well TOUGH! They have several ways to combat that:
1) STAY BELOW THE SPEED LIMIT AND STOP TREATING OUR AVENUES AS YOUR PRIVATE SPEEDWAYS!
2) Better yet, partake of our great public transportation system or taxis or the new Uber/Lyft/etc. car services and KEEP YOUR TRAFFIC-JAMMING PRIVATE CARS OUT OF MANHATTAN!
You expressed my thoughts exactly!!
Why are cars given so much respect for christ’s sake? Get them out of here! Use subways and taxis.
So if a police car hits a pedestrian, the driver is not liable? Come on…
Traffic laws and strict enforcement are mandatory for safe streets and sidewalks for both pedestrians and drivers. I live on the UWS and cross the park on foot every day to work on the UES. Walk signs and cross walks are ignored by drivers. Twice in the past three weeks I have been in the middle of the 67th and 5th crosswalk when a tourist bus casually drove through the red light, aiming at me. I returned to the curb and waited through a light sequence before trying again to cross with the light, dodging cars the entire time. If people know there are costly consequences to bad behavior, maybe there is a one-in-a-million chance to make our streets safer.