NEW YORK—Transportation Alternatives, a New York advocacy group for alternative modes of transportation, released a report on Tuesday that gives recommendations to Mayor Bloomberg and state agencies to reducing dangerous driving. Experts who contributed to the report spoke at a press conference at City Hall.
The report contains data on traffic violations, their causes, police enforcement, and Transportation Alternatives’ 20 recommendations that would “bring safety, order, and justice to New York City’s streets,” said Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives.
Transportation Alternatives (TA) spent about six months investigating speeding violations, and found that “39 percent of motorists on New York City streets are violating the speed limit.”
About 270 people are killed and 50,000 are injured in traffic accidents each year, and TA feels that the police are not doing enough to ensure the safety of the people.
“If you are driving lawlessly on the streets of New York City, and you kill or injure an innocent bystander, it is extremely unlikely that you will even be charged with any wrongdoing,” White said, and that we should break this “Chain of danger and injustice.”
Professor of Criminal Justice and former police officer Peter Moskos pointed out that “This sends the message of a city out of control.”
According to White, the Accident Investigation Squad does very little in investigating traffic accidents. The squad “is only deployed if someone is dead or likely to die that night in a traffic crash.”
Audrey Anderson, who testified in the press conference, said her 14-year-old son was killed in a traffic accident. “A portion of his brain, his liver, and his ears were taken for further evaluation on drug and substance abuse,” said Anderson, while the speeding driver who killed him did not even get a blood test. “What is the purpose of this so-called investigation?” she asked.
Transportation Alternatives calls on Bloomberg to create an Office of Road Safety, which exist in other cities, and to prioritize traffic safety by improving communications between infrastructure and traffic enforcement agencies. TA is also recommending that the New York Police Department not limit the deployment of the Accident Investigation Squad to fatal cases.
