Braving the cold, more than 150 people gathered on the steps of City Hall yesterday to demand that New York City's five district attorneys begin filing charges against reckless drivers who kill and injure New Yorkers on the streets.
"The five New York City district attorneys have failed to do their job," said Amy Cohen, who helped found Families For Safe Streets after her 12-year-old son Sammy was killed in 2013. No charges were filed against the driver who killed her son. "New York City has a culture of lawlessness on our streets, because reckless drivers are not held accountable," she said.
Charges for reckless or negligent driving are exceedingly rare absent other aggravating circumstances, even in cases where the victim dies. Since January 2012, more than 500 pedestrians and cyclists have been killed by drivers in NYC, but in only two known occasions have city DAs filed homicide charges against a driver who was not drunk, fleeing the scene, running from police, or intentionally attacking the victim, according to records kept by Streetsblog. Fewer than 2 percent of drivers in non-DUI cases are prosecuted, according to Families For Safe Streets.
Families for Safe Streets is asking for five changes from the DAs:
- Comprehensive Vision Zero training for all staff and changing terminology from "accidents," which implies a lack of fault, to "crashes" or "collisions."
- Work with NYPD to widely prosecute misdemeanor driving offenses in criminal court, including violations of Section 19-190, also known as the Right of Way Law, which creates criminal penalties for drivers who injure or kill pedestrians and cyclists with the right of way.
- Significantly increase the number of reckless sober drivers charged with felony crimes and lead the charge for city and state legislative changes that may be necessary.
- Introduce "restorative justice" and other alternative sentencing practices as part of the pre-plea conference for vehicular violence cases, with the input of victims and families.
- Systematically compile and share data about charges filed and outcomes in vehicular violence cases.
Three of the city's five district attorneys are on the ballot this year: Queens DA Richard Brown, who was first elected in 1991; Bronx DA Robert Johnson, who took office in 1989; and Staten Island DA Daniel Donovan, who was first elected to the position in 2003 and is now running for the congressional seat vacated by Michael Grimm. Ken Thompson defeated incumbent Charles Hynes in the race for Brooklyn DA in 2013. The same year, Manhattan DA Cy Vance faced only token opposition before cruising to a second term.
When he first ran for Manhattan DA in 2009, Vance said criminal convictions should act as a deterrent to reckless drivers and that reforming the law in Albany would require "a full court press." He promised to challenge the "rule of two," a case law precedent that has been interpreted to mean that sober drivers must commit at least two traffic violations before a criminal charge can stick in court. On a since-removed section of his campaign website, Vance said:
There is no reason why two traffic violations are necessary in order to support a conviction of criminally negligent homicide. I view the “Rule of Two” as the result of case law which should be modified to reflect the reality that one vehicular crime is fully capable of killing. Although in recent years this notion has been applied by the courts in a less strict manner — it is indisputable that it does not take two violations to kill someone. Many violations — speeding, running a red light, or failing to stop at a stop sign are more than dangerous enough to take a life.
Since taking office, however, Vance's office has failed to challenge the "rule of two" and has not made reforming traffic violence laws in Albany a priority. His office rarely files criminal charges against sober reckless drivers, including the cab driver who killed 9-year-old Cooper Stock on the Upper West Side last year.
"My son is dead. Why hasn't District Attorney Vance prosecuted killer drivers, as he promised he would in 2009?" asked Dana Lerner, Cooper's mother. "Mr. Vance, wherever you are, you need to take action instead of making false campaign promises."
