ALBANY — They’ve done it — or, more accurately, not done it — again!
The state Assembly will adjourn for the year without passing the Stop Super Speeders bill, a common-sense safety proposal on which street safety advocates had pinned all their hopes this session.
Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman WIlliam Magnarelli (D-Syracuse) told Streetsblog on Friday that the bill — which would require recidivist speeders to install a simple device to block the car from being driven recklessly — “probably” won’t pass due to concerns from Assembly legal staff about the alleged due process rights of car owners who are caught on camera speeding six or more times in any 12-month period.
“The owner of the car [that gets the device] may not be the person who’s driving the car,” Magnarelli said, summarizing some of the opposition to the bill (S4045/A2299). “Ninety percent of the time they are the same, but they’re not necessarily. Now you’re going to take the car away from the family. This is where due process comes in and [the Assembly lawyers] are looking into how we deal with due process.”
As a point of fact, the Stop Super Speeders bill would not take any car away from anyone — it just requires the speed-limiting device, much like an ignition interlock prevents drunk people from driving. But that fact hasn’t deterred opponents from making up more crazy stuff.
For instance, Magnarelli said some lawmakers are concerned that there’s no enforcement mechanism against super speeders who choose to drive other cars besides the one in which the intelligent speed assistance device has been installed.
“I agree with the bill. I have no problem with it. It’s just [the question of] how to implement it,” Magnarelli said. “Somebody could just switch cars.” (Yes, but those drivers would get a new tranche of tickets, this time on the other car.)
The concerns raised by unspecified staff of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) are particularly alarming given that the bills’ sponsors, Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Bay Ridge) and Assembly Member Emily Gallagher (D-Williamsburg), have been discussing it with colleagues for more than a year.
And it’s not like the bill is radical; Stop Super Speeders was modeled on a 2009 New York law that requires people sentenced for driving with intoxication to install devices to prevent them from starting the car if they are intoxicated. (And for the law and order crowd: people who tamper with the devices or fail to get them installed would be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.)
Best of all the approach aims to target only the worst of the worst offenders — which, according to the city Department of Transportation, is just 8 percent of drivers in New York City, the only locality with speed cameras. Most speeders stop driving so recklessly after receiving one or two camera-issued tickets, some drivers simply will not slow down, no matter how many $50 tickets they receive.
Statewide, in 2024, 915 vehicles received 52 or more tickets – at least one a week, according to Families for Safe Streets. Those are the kinds of drivers being targeted.
On Sunday, Gallagher took the long view.
“Unfortunately, it's not unusual for important legislation to move more slowly in the Assembly than in the Senate,” she told Streetsblog. “I am fighting for the Super Speeders bill and believe every delay will result in preventable crashes and lives lost. We have strong support from advocates and other relevant stakeholders, including NYC DOT, and I believe we are on track for the bill to pass next year."
Meanwhile, another Albany insider familiar with the Transportation Committee said Magnarelli, unlike other committee chairs, is “not willing to go into the weeds on the bill and address [members’] concerns and what the sponsor wants to do.”
The insider also said the legal staff assigned to Assembly Transportation are not communicative with bill sponsors’ staff.
That’s not true in the Senate, where the bill has passed the Transportation Committee and appears to be on track to pass before that body adjourns on June 12.
But that’s only half the battle. The other half is the Assembly, where there are 150 members, all pushing to get noticed.
“I’ve got hundreds of bills in committee and I’m lucky if we get 20 or 30 to the floor,” Magnarelli said. “You’ve got to go through every law on the books. There is a bottleneck and it takes time. I’m hoping that in doing the research, we get a better bill.”
And the chairman realizes that he’s letting down a lot of people by not getting this bill to the governor’s desk before the end of session, forcing it to be reintroduced next year. One of those people is grieving father Darnell Sealy-McCrorey, whose 13-year-old daughter was killed by a speeder.
“He’ll be upset,” Magnarelli said when we asked how the dad will feel. “And I am upset too. But that doesn’t mean that you just pass laws that are unenforceable or non-constitutional.”
It’s not the first time that Albany has adjourned without passing key street safety legislation. In fact, it’s quite common, as Streetsblog has reported.
"Upset" is not the right word for a man like Darnell Sealy McCrorey. "Focused" is probably a lot more descriptive.
“All work and hard work and dedication will never go unnoticed," he said. "We will try again next year. Everybody’s heart was in the right place. I really wish and hope it does pass next session.”
He's not taking any chances. He has scheduled two more trips to Albany before the end of session on June 17.
