Driver's Need to Take More Responsibility
In a previous post, I wrote about our Staten Island streets being more akin to highways and the general attitude of entitlement that prevails amongst Staten Island drivers. A recent article from the Staten Island Advance visits those same issues in light of the tragic hit-and-run deaths of an elderly couple in New Dorp on Thanksgiving Eve. What was appalling was that the driver who killed the husband and wife has had his license suspended 29 times and was still driving! The driver was only 26-years old - even if he had received his license when he was 18 years old, he would average more than 3 suspensions a year.
Driving with a suspended license is a crime and punishable as such. Even if your suspension results from failing to pay a traffic ticket, you have still violated Section 511 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law and are subject to arrest if you are stopped while driving. Obviously, the chance of being arrested was not enough to deter this individual from driving. The system is so weak that it actually encourages people to continue to drive with a suspended license. You also have to question if the police had stopped that driver before and, if they did, what was his punishment or why was he let go? He had numerous prior convictions for such crimes as talking on a cell phone, ignoring traffic signs and driving without a license. He killed these people on their way to church! Transportation officials had just wrapped up a meeting with local residents that discussed the dangerous traffic conditions on New Dorp Lane. The meeting was too little, too late.
How often when you are driving do you notice other drivers making a right turn on red, when there is no sign allowing them to do so? Or driver's performing the "rolling stop" at a 4-way stop sign or rushing past a school bus to "beat" the stop sign from unfolding? On an Island of approximately 450,000 people, these sights are too common and all too often lead to the tragedy that occurred on Thanksgiving Eve. Despite what some residents say, these "quality of life" crimes must be more rigidly enforced by the police to prevent these tragedies.
I say if you are caught driving with a suspended license, the police should take your car away, just like a drunk driver. Such drivers obviously don't fear the criminal penalties enough to deter them from getting behind the wheel so you have to take the wheel away from them. Despite the frequent addition of red lights and speed bumps, even new stop signs with blinking lights, the attitudes of Staten Island drivers have to change. Transportation officials can install a light or speed bump at every corner or intersection, but it is up to residents to obey the rules. I sometimes feel that we have just lost basic common courtesy, helped along by reality TV programs that encourage, in fact glorify, such behavior.
