State lawmakers, led by Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assembly member Emily Gallagher, proposed a bill that would require drivers who receive six or more speeding tickets from traffic cameras or 11 points on their license within an 18-month period to have a speed limiting device installed on their cars. the bill was announced to the public at an event in Brooklyn on Tuesday. The lawmakers chose the intersection where 31-year-old Katherine Harris was killed by a speeding driver in April.
“If you have a demonstrated history of speeding throughout our city’s streets, of driving recklessly throughout our city’s streets, we are going to literally force you to slow down,” said Gounardes, per amNY.
The program is inspired by ignition interlock devices New York state mandates on the vehicles of drivers who repeatedly drive drunk.
The new rules are being designed to correct the behavior of what Gounardes characterized as the worst three percent of the city’s drivers. He claimed that these people receive ticket after ticket, but don’t change their behavior and face only fines, no license restrictions, since traffic cameras only identify the car in question and not the driver, thus sparing them from receiving points on their license.
It is unclear whether the state legislature will pass the bill, as there has been resistance to similar measures in the past.