(Queens, NY) – New York State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. (D-Queens) is pushing for legislation (S.1450) he co-sponsors that would significantly increase penalties for motorists who knowingly drive with suspended or revoked drivers’ licenses and then end up injuring or killing other innocent New Yorkers.
“People who know that their drivers’ licenses have been suspended or revoked simply shouldn’t be behind the wheel,” Addabbo said. “They are willfully breaking the law and putting the lives of others at risk with their reckless behavior. If, during the course of their illegal driving, they seriously injure or take the life of another person, they should face appropriate punishment.”
Under the legislation, which recently passed the full State Senate, people who know, or have cause to know, that their licenses are suspended or revoked, and who are involved in serious accidents resulting in injury or death, will face felony charges of vehicular assault in the second degree and vehicular manslaughter in the second degree. These charges are now only brought against motorists who lost their licenses as a result of drunk driving and who seriously injure or kill others while illegally operating motor vehicles.
“Licenses don’t get suspended or revoked for any reason,” Addabbo pointed out. “People who fail to answer a traffic summons, or who don’t pay a required fine, or who have their insurance lapse — the State Department of Motor Vehicles responds in kind by ending their driving privileges. To keep driving around without a license is more than thumbing your nose at authority – it’s a real danger to other law-abiding people.”
Having been approved by the Senate, the bill is now under consideration by the State Assembly Codes Committee.
