16-year-old Brooklyn, New York resident Dervish Nivokazi, was charged recently with manslaughter after he killed 65-year-old Zak Stanislaw who was waiting at a bus stop.
Police say that Nivokazi was speeding in a 2005 Mazda, hit a Toyota, and then slammed into Stanislaw who was pronounced dead minutes after the 9:20pm crash.
Nivokazi had only a junior license (similar to Washington's intermediate license) which prohibits driving after 9pm. He was treated for minor injuries at Lutheran Hospital. The driver of the Toyota was not injured.
According to Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives, only 29 drivers in New York State have been charged with negligent homicide from 1994 to 2008 despite thousands of pedestrians and bicyclists that have been killed.
Showing posts with label new york. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new york. Show all posts
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
New York Tightens Teen Driving Laws
Albany, New York is in the process of enacting new teen driving laws to bring down teen driver and passenger fatalities.
Currently, teens are able to get their license within the first 6 months of their permit with only 20 hours required of parent observation. The new bill raises that to 6 months of permit driving until even being able to schedule the road test and 50 hours or observed driving with 15 of those being night driving.
The bill would ban the use of electronic devices, handheld or other, and reduce the number of non-family drivers to one until age 21.
The bill also closes loopholes where teens were able to plea-bargain driving offenses to reduce them to non-moving violations, and thus avoiding points being added to their driving record. The only drawback to this is many parents pay for the driver's insurance so maybe having some court appointed volunteer work would actually be more appropriate.
One place the bill may falter, however, is drivers will be able to get their full license at age 17 whereas the federal bill restricts a full license until age 18.
36% of teen deaths are caused by motor vehicle accidents, and teen drivers are twice as likely to die in crashes as are adult drivers, studies show.
Thank you to Buffalo News.
Currently, teens are able to get their license within the first 6 months of their permit with only 20 hours required of parent observation. The new bill raises that to 6 months of permit driving until even being able to schedule the road test and 50 hours or observed driving with 15 of those being night driving.
The bill would ban the use of electronic devices, handheld or other, and reduce the number of non-family drivers to one until age 21.
The bill also closes loopholes where teens were able to plea-bargain driving offenses to reduce them to non-moving violations, and thus avoiding points being added to their driving record. The only drawback to this is many parents pay for the driver's insurance so maybe having some court appointed volunteer work would actually be more appropriate.
One place the bill may falter, however, is drivers will be able to get their full license at age 17 whereas the federal bill restricts a full license until age 18.
36% of teen deaths are caused by motor vehicle accidents, and teen drivers are twice as likely to die in crashes as are adult drivers, studies show.
Thank you to Buffalo News.
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