By Stephen Stirling
City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and a coalition of Whitestone residents clamored Saturday for the city to take severe action against truckers who are driving illegal routes — calling the rumbling commercial giants a menace in their quiet neighborhood.
Avella, members of the Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Civic Association and area residents gathered at the corner of 5th Avenue and 147th Street to call on the city to enforce established trucking routes and crack down on violators who are barrelling their trucks down residential streets.
“This is a potentially dangerous quality-of-life issue that has been ignored for far too long. I personally have correspondence [with the city] dating back to 1999 regarding this problem,” said Whitestone resident Alfredo Centola. “It has now become a hazardous issue, especially for the young families and 17 children residing on the block under the age of 14.”
Pat Carpentiere, president the Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Civic Association, agrees, contending that the issue is not only a noise issue, but a safety issue.
“Residents are truly scared to let their children out to play,” he said. “Something needs to be done to address this situation as soon as possible.”
Avella said fines levied on truck drivers for disobeying the legal trucking routes are more often than not ignored. He called for the state legislature to create harsher penalties for violations.
“All too often these huge trucks and tractor-trailers drive through quiet residential streets with little or no regard for residents — creating traffic congestion, noise, pollution and vibrations that shake the foundations of homes,” Avella said.
“Despite previous legislative efforts that have increased the penalties issued to truck drivers for truck route violations, many trucking companies and drivers disregard these fines as merely the cost of doing business,” he said.
In 2006, Avella introduced a resolution in the City Council that called on state politicians to amend the traffic law to allow police to confiscate a truck if the driver of such a vehicle has been convicted of three violations of the city's truck route rules within an 18-month period.
Avella said such a measure would give the existing law some teeth.
“Seizing the truck would send a powerful message to these companies and drivers that we are now longer going to tolerate illegal truck traffic,” he said.
Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e-mail at Sstirling@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
