State Senate Considers Bill that Would Require Carmakers to Install More Safety Technology to Prevent Crashes

By Yehudit Garmaise

Just 12 days after Mayor Eric Adams announced that he installed car safety technology that will limit the speeds in 50 cars of city workers, state Sen. Brad Hoylman introduced a bill that could require civilians to drive in cars with similar features to better prevent deadly crashes.

If Adams is happy with the efficiency of the Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) that automatically prevents drivers from speeding by decelerating cars when they go above-posted speed limits, he said he would install safety technology in all 30,000 of the city’s public service vehicles.

New York would require automakers to include advanced driver assistance systems as standard equipment in new vehicles that are made starting in 2024, if Hoylman’s bill passes.

While many NY lawmakers laudably want to protect innocent pedestrians and drivers from the harm, wreckage, and senseless deaths reckless drivers can cause, the federal government oversees vehicle safety regulations, so New York may not have the freedom to enforce the law if it were to pass.

"Studies have shown that ISA alone can reduce traffic fatalities by 20%,” state Sen. Hoylman, who represents a large part of Manhattan, wrote in his bill. “In addition, Advanced Emergency Braking, Emergency Lane Keeping Systems, drowsiness and distraction recognition technology, and rear-view cameras, would help prevent crashes.”

While ISA technology is common in cars that are made in Europe, the safety feature has yet to be adopted in the US.

Ford, for instance, offers several European-made models that allow drivers the option to limit their speeds to within five mph of posted speed limits and otherwise set maximum speeds.

Hoylman’s bill also seeks to provide more traffic safety by requiring the NY Department of Motor Vehicles to ensure that drivers of larger trucks and SUVs, which have noticeably grown in size and weight in recent years, to include “direct visibility of pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users from the driver’s position,” in vehicles that weigh more than 3,000 pounds. 

Photo: Autoblog