New York A 1788: Provides for certain presumptions for reckless driving and the implementation of a reckless driving and vehicular violence awareness component of the pre-licensing course for driver's licenses

Bill Text

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A01788 Summary:

BILL NOA01788 

&nbsp

SAME ASSAME AS S02061

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SPONSORRosenthal

&nbsp

COSPNSRSimon, Gallagher, Seawright, Epstein, Clark, Dinowitz, Buttenschon, Chludzinski

&nbsp

MLTSPNSR

&nbsp

Amd §§1212, 1146 & 502, V & T L; amd §2336, Ins L

&nbsp

Provides for certain presumptions for reckless driving and the implementation of a reckless driving and vehicular violence awareness component of the pre-licensing course for driver's licenses.

Go to top A01788 Actions:

BILL NOA01788 

&nbsp

01/14/2025referred to transportation

01/07/2026referred to transportation

Go to topA01788 Committee&nbspVotes:

Go to topA01788 Floor&nbspVotes:

There are no Assembly votes for this bill in this legislative session.

Go to topA01788 Text:

 STATE OF NEW YORK
 ________________________________________________________________________

 1788

 2025-2026 Regular Sessions

 IN ASSEMBLY

 January 14, 2025
 ___________

 Introduced by M. of A. ROSENTHAL, SIMON, GALLAGHER, SEAWRIGHT, EPSTEIN,
 CLARK, DINOWITZ, BUTTENSCHON -- read once and referred to the Commit-
 tee on Transportation

 AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law and the insurance law, in
 relation to reckless driving and the implementation of a reckless
 driving and vehicular violence awareness component of the pre-licens-
 ing course for driver's licenses

 The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
 bly, do enact as follows:

 1 Section 1. Legislative intent. The Legislature recognizes the height-
 2 ened responsibility of operating a multi-ton car or truck and that such
 3 motor vehicle is a dangerous instrument under state law that, in an
 4 instant, can cause lethal physical harm. For example, when operating a
 5 car at 30 miles per hour the average risk of a pedestrian dying upon
 6 impact with such car is 40%, at 40 miles per hour the risk of death is
 7 80%, and at speeds greater than 50 miles per hour the likelihood of
 8 death is near certain at nearly 100%.
 9 When deaths resulting from alcohol-impaired driving were reduced from
 10 approximately 30,000 annually in the early 1980s across the United
 11 States to approximately 10,000 annually in recent years, that remarkable
 12 reduction was achieved in part by the certainty experienced by drivers
 13 that they would suffer legal consequences for driving impaired and risk-
 14 ing the lives of themselves and others, resulting from changes in laws
 15 prohibiting impaired driving. However, that certainty does not exist for
 16 other types of dangerous driving. A 2016 survey by the National Safety
 17 Council showed that "although 83% of drivers surveyed believe driving is
 18 a safety concern, a startling number say they are comfortable speeding
 19 (64%) and texting either manually or through voice controls (47%),"
 20 whereas far fewer (10%) say they are comfortable driving after they feel
 21 they've had too much alcohol. This shows that, while drunk driving has
 22 become socially unacceptable, most other forms of dangerous driving have

 EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
 [ ] is old law to be omitted.
 LBD03522-01-5

 A. 1788 2

 1 not, and New Yorkers are paying the price with lives lost and bodies and
 2 families shattered. Moreover, the New York city Department of Transpor-
 3 tation estimated in 2010 that the annual cost of all traffic crashes
 4 just in New York city to be $4.29 billion annually, about 1% of the
 5 Gross City Product.
 6 As evidenced by our country's experience combatting drunk driving,
 7 research has shown that perceived certainty of legal consequences is
 8 necessary to deter or prevent harmful acts, including dangerous driving.
 9 The original statutory language of the New York vehicle and traffic law
 10 section 1212, in and of itself, is favorable to a reasonable standard
 11 for reckless or dangerous driving, specifying that driving in a manner
 12 that "unreasonably interferes with" or "unreasonably endangers others"
 13 constitutes a violation of that section and is an unclassified misdemea-
 14 nor. However, that reasonableness standard has subsequently been height-
 15 ened by New York judicial interpretations that require factors such as a
 16 finding of seriously blameworthy conduct, an "affirmative act" by the
 17 driver, a "gros