Mayor Adams and NYPD to Crack Down on Speeding, Reckless, and Drunk Drivers

By Yehudit Garmaise

Mayor Eric Adams has instructed the NYPD to crack down on issuing tickets to speeding, reckless, and drunk drivers: the number of whom has “increased drastically in the past two years,” the mayor said.

Seventy percent of recent traffic fatalities, the mayor said, were perpetrated by drivers who drove with suspended licenses, were speeding, or were driving under the influence.

“We are going to increase enforcement of traffic laws,” said Mayor Adams, who said that, “Providing safe streets is not just about addressing gun violence. “It is better to be pro-active than re-active.”

Adams, who is investing more than $900 million to engineering safer streets, said he is going to bring “bring traffic violence levels down through engineering, enforcement, and education.”

To increase awareness of the dangers of speeding, which the mayor said “ends lives,” Adams’ administration and the Department of Transportation is investing $4 million in a public awareness campaign in nine languages to get New Yorkers to slow down.

In addition, Mayor Adams spoke of the city’s need for “help from Albany” to allow 24/7 use of speed and red-light cameras.

Citing the more than 35 fatalities and more than 300 serious injuries that have taken place in East New York, where the mayor spoke, in the last five years, said New Yorkers need to “slow down, and pay attention because speeding ends lives.”