Streetsblog New York City

I don’t understand why we need to come up with novel ways to deal with this – impounding cars and elevating charges to felonies. It’s quite simple, really. Attach significant mandatory jail time to driving with a suspended license. That’s what’s they do here in Virginia, and while it doesn’t keep all suspended drivers off the roads, it’s a pretty strong disincentive, and would put a pretty good dent in the revolving door you guys have up there.

Here’s a sample of a letter you can send to your state Assemblymember:

Dear Assemblymember Powell:

This letter concerns Assembly Bill 5124, which aims to reclassify as felonies harmful crashes by drivers with a recent history of recklessness, including those whose licenses have been suspended.

Research has shown that drivers with suspended or otherwise invalid licenses are nearly four times as likely to be involved in traffic crashes as those with valid licenses. And 75% of drivers with suspended licenses continue to drive. Clearly, license suspension is not an effective disincentive that can keep these proven dangerous drivers from continued reckless driving. As you are no doubt aware, two drivers with suspended licenses killed three New Yorkers in the last two weeks alone — Sonya Powell, and Peter and Lillian Sabados.

Significantly, in both of these recent, deadly crashes involving unlicensed drivers, the drivers left the scene. For obvious reasons, and as confirmed by research, unlicensed drivers are 50 or more times more likely to hit-and-run than licensed drivers involved in crashes. This unique risk to public safety posed by unlicensed drivers is a very compelling reason to reclassify harmful crashes by unlicensed drivers as felonies.

Please let me know if you will support A.5124 or similar legislation to impose the increased penalties for harmful, unlicensed drivers that are so desperately needed.