Results tagged “driving”

NYC Transit is investigating an incident where a passenger photographed an X5 bus driver texting while on the FDR Drive and Gowanus Expressway. The passenger told Staten Island Advance, "He must have texted three or four times. I remember there was one instance on the FDR where he rolled into the right lane but quickly corrected himself. It was pretty frightening. We had a full bus...and even he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. I really don't get it."

Move over, NYPD 24-hour cellphone use-while-driving ticket blitzes—tomorrow, the NY State's ban on texting while driving goes into effect. But, the AP points out, "The new law, however, is considered a secondary offense, meaning the driver must have committed a primary offense -- such as speeding, disobeying a traffic signal or other violation -- in order to receive a ticket." Fines can be up to $150; the law doesn't apply to GPS or handsfree phone use.

The woman who crashed a van full of foster children into oncoming traffic in Queens on Monday confessed to police that she smoked crack cocaine around 1 or 2 a.m., did heroin around 9 a.m., and drank one alcoholic beverage around noon that same day. Sheila Bethea, 45, also admitted to speeding, and told police she did not know 5-year-olds needed to be in car seats. (None of her passengers were even wearing seat belts.) Perhaps even more devastating is the revelation that the children were supposed to taken to their foster care appointment in a cab.

Since 12:01 a.m., the NYPD has been doing this crazy thing whereby they enforce the law, issuing tickets to drivers using portable electronic devices in one of their regular 24-hour sting operations. And one driver we know has already gotten nailed. The scofflaw, who asked to remain anonymous, was shocked to find that he was being ticketed for what the cop perceived as sending a text message. But he wasn't texting, ociffer!

On November 1st, a new law banning texting or using electronic devices like iPods and laptops while driving goes into effect in New York State. But Senator Chuck Schumer announced yesterday at one of his patented Sunday press conferences that he's pushing for a nationwide ban on texting. Schumer cited data showing that text-messaging while driving has resulted in almost 100 teen deaths over the last five years in the city and on Long Island.

It's understandable for a public school administrator to want a li'l drinky-poo after a hard day's work dealing with the kiddies, but driving to school sloshed? Those kids at IS 217 in the Bronx must be monsters! Assistant principal Melonie Lendor was arrested on the New York State Thruway in Rockland County at around 6:40 a.m. yesterday after other drivers called 911 because she was driving so erratically. Police say she failed a field sobriety test, but refused to take a Breathalyzer test. Worse: Her 10-month-old son was in the car. Still worse: This is her third drunken-driving bust. That means she's (finally) charged with felony driving while intoxicated and child endangerment. A seventh-grader at the school tells the Post, "No wonder we didn't see her today," but students should probably be used to that by now; a teacher tells the Daily News, "She was entirely missing from the school at times. She seems to make bad decisions."

A nun who spent Tuesday afternoon knocking back too much "Jesus juice" was arrested for drunk driving after plowing into a tree on Long Island. Sister Lauren Hanley, 68, is the "spiritual development director" at Wantagh's St. Frances de Chantal Church, which is where she started drinking around 3 p.m. that day. Some three hours later, she was careening through residential streets in the church's 2006 Toyota Corolla, with a blood-alcohol level of 0.18, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.

You'll be forgiven for not realizing that it's actually illegal for NYC cab drivers to use cell phones—even hands-free—because they all do it. This morning the Times takes a look at chatty cabbies as part of an ongoing series of articles called "Driven to Distraction." Surprisingly, a reporter assigned to ride in cabs as research found that only about one third of his 20 taxi rides featured a driver using his or her cell phone. Almost all of them terminated the call when asked—except for one hack who pulled over and grumbled about a stalled engine.

A train operator did indeed allow a boy into the cab at the front of a Lexington Avenue 4 express train on Sunday, NYC Transit has confirmed. The 8 or 9 year old boy was apparently a relative of the conductor, who along with the motorwoman has been suspended without pay, pending further investigation. It's still unclear whether the unidentified motorman actually let the boy drive the train, but the witness who prompted the investigation claims he heard her saying, "It's green, speed up...Yellow, slow down." Speaking to the Daily News, a co-worker described the motorwoman, who's been on the job since 1993, as "cautious and attentive... I don't think the kid was driving the train. I think at most she was just showing him [how to drive]." Oh, that's all! But what if this kid had seen the new Taking of Pelham 123 and decided to pull a Travolta? (Or even a Luis Guzman?) Transit officials are taking this one very seriously, and the motorwoman could very well be fired because letting unauthorized visitors into the cab, regardless of age, is against the rules. And letting them drive the train is kinda frowned upon, too.

The MTA is investigating an allegation that a young boy, approximately 8 or 9 years old, was allowed into the train operator's compartment for a little driving tutorial. On Sunday, Jules Cattie, a 41-year-old lawyer, was in the first car of an uptown Lexington Avenue express train when he witnessed "the craziest thing I've ever seen." First he heard the female train operator talking to someone, saying "It's green, speed up...Yellow, slow down." He assumed she was teaching a new MTA worker, but then he saw a child emerge from the compartment.

Check it out, the State Senate did something! Look at them go up there in Albany, passing bills and not locking each other out of the Senate chambers: Just yesterday they voted 57-1, all by themselves, to pass a bill prohibiting drivers from text messaging or using any electronic devices—including iPods—while their cars are in motion. The bill's been a long time coming (a similar version was passed by the Assembly a while ago) and it will become law in November once Governor Paterson lowers his head to paper and signs it. Drivers caught violating the law will be hit with a $150 fine, but it could only be imposed as a secondary offense, when a driver gets pulled over for another violation. Still, some motorists approve; Dave St. Bernard tells the Post, "Sometimes I text and drive. I'm sure it is dangerous, but you get complacent sometimes as a driver. You think you can handle anything on the roads that comes your way." Lawmakers were motivated to pass the bill in part by a horrible accident in 2007, when an SUV driven by a texting teen collided with a tractor trailer in Ontario County. But when will government do something about texting while walking?

Earlier today, Transportation Alternatives held a press conference at City Hall to call on Mayor Bloomberg to "take control of New York’s streets and establish an effective deterrence against dangerous driving." A report released by the group finds the NYPD largely inadequate when it comes to enforcing traffic laws, and the study, which analyzed data from "known rates of driver infraction and summonsing by the NYPD," includes some troubling stats:

It's the unofficial start of the summer and the AAA projects that 1.5% more Americans will travel over 50 miles from home this weekend than they did last year. That translates to 32.4 million people on the roads While gas prices are not near last year's expensive prices, some drivers are wary of creeping prices. Gas prices have risen 27 cents/gallon this month (average: $2.36/gallon) and a cab driver, at a Manhattan gas station, told the AP, "Uh-oh. That's the first thing I say when I pull into this gas station each day. Right now it's not that bad, but it's a lot worse than two weeks ago." An energy analyst told the Christian Science Monitor that the prices will top out soon, "Prices usually peak after Memorial Day, perhaps sometime in June."

The Scarsdale mother who was arrested after abandoning her two daughters, ages 10 and 12, on a sidewalk three miles from their home last month will not be charged with child endangerment, a White Plains judge decided today. Speaking to the press for the first time outside the court house, Madlyn Primoff said, "Clearly I made a mistake, but I truly love our children and I know that I am a good parent." Primoff was pilloried by mothers as far away as Australia after the infamous incident, but today her lawyer explained that she did not intend to leave her children to walk home. Fed up with their bickering, she had merely ejected them from the car as a bluff while she drove around the block. But when she returned, they were gone! She soon found the 12-year-old, but the distraught younger girl had been taken in by a Good Samaritan, who alerted police. Prosecutor Audrey Stone said Primoff was "engaged in family therapy" and posed no threat to her children, so Judge Eric Press agreed to dismiss the case and seal it in six months if Primoff behaves.

Take heed, Chatty Kathys, the police are about to start a crackdown on drivers using hand-held cell phones. Of course, the NYPD can't keep their mouths shut either, which is why a police source blabbed all about it to the Post, presumably via cell phone while driving at top speed up Sixth Avenue. The source was even kind enough to reveal the exact moment when the crackdown is set to commence: Starting at 12:01 a.m. Thursday there will be stepped-up enforcement, with more cops assigned to catch people chatting while driving. So you've got less than 48 hours to recklessly multitask; violators face a fine of $120 if caught. In 2008 the NYPD issued 195,579 summonses to drivers using hand-held cellphones, and last August the City Council and State Legislature talked about banning text messaging while driving, too. And once that passes, you know they're coming for your BrickBreaker!

    

As we announced on Monday, a group of cycling clowns rode along Kent Avenue in Williamsburg today to protest what they call a growing "anti-bike sentiment in Brooklyn." Organized by Times Up, the ride was a response of sorts to vocal community opposition to the bike lane, which some residents and business owners blame for a sudden dearth of parking. Last month Hasidic Jews in the largely Satmar section of South Williamsburg vowed to protest the bike lane by blocking traffic on Kent.

We continue to receive emails about the controversial Kent Avenue bike lane in Brooklyn, which has become the front line in the battle over bike lanes. On one side are business owners and residents who insist that the new "No Stopping" signs on Kent, installed to accommodate the bike lane, are onerous; on the other side are cyclists who enjoy the sense of a safer commute between north and south Brooklyn, and cherish the hope for a Brooklyn Greenway completely separate from traffic. Here's an email in response to yesterday's story about a cyclist who says Hasidim in South Williamsburg are making good on their promise to obstruct traffic in protest:

Things have gotten pretty terrible in the saga of the Kent Ave. bike lane, at least for the people who live or work on this block. Today I had to drive home my 5 year old daughter from hospital, after she went through surgery last week, it was 6 p.m. when we arrived in front our home at 450 Kent Avenue and it was freezing cold outside, after driving around for 15 minutes, I finally found a halfway illegal parking spot 4 blocks away from my home, I had to walk with my cranky just out of hospital daughter in my hands, all while she was complaining why I had to park so far.

Continue reading "Bike Lane Brouhaha: Officials Backpedal on Kent Ave"

The battle over bike lanes is heating up, with members of the Hasidic community in South Williamsburg vowing to block traffic in protest against a new bike lane on Kent Avenue. You'll recall that some of the opposition has to do with the increasing number of female cyclists riding through the neighborhood wearing immodest clothing. The Hasidim are also fuming over a parking ticket blitz last October when, to make way for the bike lane, traffic cops enforced a new change in parking rules on Shabbos, when Orthodox Jews don't operate machinery.

Saturday, DOT, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means Orthodox Jews don't work, don't handle money, don't drive a car, and sure don't roll their wheels to the opposite side of the street to obey city parking regulations. Nevertheless, traffic cops went ahead and enforced a new change in parking rules in the predominantly Orthodox enclave of South Williamsburg, writing tickets for over 90 vehicles that hadn't been moved by 6:30 a.m. Saturday. The new parking rules have been implemented so the DOT can begin installing more bike lanes through the neighborhood, a move that's already prompted opposition from community members who object to the surge in cyclists—most of whom are immodestly dressed. DOT spokesman Scott Gastel tells the Post that the "DOT gave advance notification to community leaders and ... officials that signage would change." But because of the outcry, Gastel said all the $110 tickets would be dismissed.

Suffolk County on Long Island has become the first place in New York State where it's illegal to send text messages while operating a motor vehicle. Effective immediately, drivers spotted fiddling with their cell phones will face a $150 fine. Similar legislation has been passed in Nassau and Westchester counties but has not gone into effect, and a statewide law is still tied up in the legislature. In August, New York City Councilman David Weprin also introduced a bill that would make texting while driving illegal. The father of twin 16-year-old girls, Weprin said he was motivated by last summer’s fatal accident in the Finger Lakes, in which five girls in a sport utility vehicle died when the text-messaging teenage driver swerved into oncoming traffic.

The state law banning hand-held cell phone use while driving doesn’t extend to text messaging, something Councilman David Weprin, father of 16-year-old twin girls, would like to change fast. Motivated by last summer’s fatal accident in the Finger Lakes region, in which five girls in a sport utility vehicle died when the text-messaging teenage driver swerved into oncoming traffic, Weprin will introduce a measure today that would ban the sending or reading of text messages while driving within city limits, the Times reports. Alaska, Minnesota, New Jersey and Washington are the only states that currently ban text-messaging while driving.

A number of police unions representing different segments of the NYPD filed a joint complaint against the City with the Board of Collective Bargaining, saying that Mayor Bloomberg's effort to cut the number of park-anywhere-you-feel-like placards is an economic hardship and a violation of state labor laws. The suit does acknowledge that there is nothing in union contracts regarding the issuance of placards, however.

A maximum $100 fine doesn't seem to be stemming the rising tide of self-absorbed assholes who drive cars while blathering on their cell phones. Though a state law prohibits the use of a hand-held mobile phone while operating a motor vehicle, the number of violations has jumped fivefold in New York City since 2002, according to amNY. Last year almost 200,000 violations were reported.

Since the cost of a barrel of oil jumped $11 on Friday, helping the stock market drop 400 points, gas stations in the area made sure to raise their prices, too. The Post reports that many stations were charging $4.50/gallon or more!

A state senator from Long Island is proposing that texting on one's mobile phone while driving should be illegal. It's already against the law to talk on a phone while one is driving. Studies have shown that that is about as distracting as being drunk behind the wheel. One can only imagine how distracting texting--which involves digital manipulation and reading, versus simply talking--could be in comparison.

It's no shock that many drivers aren't totally on the ball when driving, but it turns out that one in three New York drivers multi-task in their cars. According to a Hunter College study (PDF) conducted at 50 intersections in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, of the over 3,000 drivers observed, 23% were talking on a cellphone, 5.7% were smoking, 4.5% were drinking, 3.1% were drinking, and 1.7% were grooming. Time to quote Rihanna:...