NYC Speed Cameras To Return Near Schools As Bill Passes Council

NEW YORK — With just a week before kids return to class, the New York City Council passed legislation Wednesday aimed at reviving and eventually expanding the city's school zone speed camera program.

The bill, approved 41-3, will allow the city to slap drivers with $50 fines when they're caught on camera zooming near schools at more than 10 MPH over the speed limit. And unlike the state legislation it mirrors, it will let the city expand both the number of cameras in the program and the hours that they're operated, said Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

The vote marked a key step toward ending the month-long lapse of a program that city officials say has reduced deaths and speeding near schools. All but 20 of the 140 cameras stopped issuing tickets July 25 because the state Legislature adjourned in June without renewing the program's authorization. The rest were set to be deactivated this week.

"There are lives at stake here — children’s lives — and now it falls on us as elected officials to fulfill our solemn obligation to do what’s right," said Johnson, who sponsored the bill.

Mayor Bill de Blasio can sign the bill by Tuesday in time for the start of the public school year on Sept. 5, Johnson said.

The city's novel fix was helped by an executive order Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued Monday directing the Department of Motor Vehicles, a state agency, to share camera data with the city. It's set to expire after 30 days but can be renewed.

De Blasio also sent the Council a message of necessity allowing lawmakers to pass the new legislation more quickly than they could have otherwise.

De Blasio's administration wants to more than double the program's size by eventually using 290 cameras, as would be allowed by a bill the state Assembly has approved, city Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said Tuesday.

The city legislation would expire whenever a new state law supporting an identical, similar or more expansive program takes effect.

Three Council members voted against the bill, including Brooklyn Democrat Kalman Yeger, who questioned the city's legal authority to do what it entailed. But Johnson stood by his position that the measure was within the city's "home rule" jurisdition.

The bill marked a victory for safe-streets advocates, who relentlessly pushed state lawmakers to return to Albany and resurrect the program.

A Tuesday afternoon Council hearing featured tearful testimony from members of the advocacy group Families for Safe Streets whose loved ones were killed by errant drivers.

Sophia Russo, a founding member of the group, said her daughter Ariel was hit and killed on her walk to school in June 2013. Her death brought on "a constant sick feeling," she said.

"I never want this to happen to anyone, ever," Russo told the Council's Committee on Transportation on Tuesday. "I don’t want other parents and grandparents to feel this."

Council members gave Families for Safe Streets a standing ovation Wednesday in the City Hall chamber, then observed a moment of silence for families affected by traffic violence in the city.

Cuomo, de Blasio and Johnson, all Democrats, have blamed Republicans in the state Senate for the program's lapse. The chamber's GOP majority leader, John Flanagan, has said senators wanted to simply renew the program without expanding it, while also adding red lights and stop signs near schools to bolster safety.

A spokeswoman for the Senate GOP pointed at Democrats' failure to talk with the GOP.

"Senate Republicans have consistently indicated their willingness to extend the speed camera program," the spokeswoman, Candice Giove, said in a statement. "Democrats can be self-congratulatory, but the public should know that their Governor, Mayor, Assembly Speaker and City Council Speaker failed to do as much as pick up the phone to call the Senate Majority to keep the cameras on."

(Lead image: Photo by Paul Brown/Shutterstock)