By Sadef Ali Kully
An introduction of an amendment in the Right of Way law, supported by Queens city council members, has pedestrian advocates and transport union members up in arms against each other.
The amendment calls for city bus operators to be exempt from the current failure-to-yield law, which is a misdemeanor when a pedestrian has been injured or killed in an incident. Drivers can expect to face 30 days in prison and/or a fines of over $250. The failure-to-yield law is part of the many laws that came into place after Mayor di Blasio’s Vision Zero citywide initiative.
The amendment to the bill is supported by the following Queens city council members I. Daneek Miller (D-St.Albans), Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton), Elizabeth Crowley (D-Glendale), Ruben Wills (D-South Ozone Park) and Eric Ulrich (D-Ozone Park).
“The new Failure to Yield law is a vital tool in our efforts to protect pedestrians and make our streets safer. We will work with our partners at the MTA and push for the training and support drivers need to do their jobs safely, and we are looking closely at changes we can make on our streets to prevent crashes between buses and pedestrians,” said Wiley Norvell, press secretary from the mayor’s office.
The Transport Workers Union Local 100 has supported the amendment, arguing that criminalizing an accident is futile when the MTA has investigation protocols following a accident. Since the failure to yield law passed six bus drivers have been arrested.
“This policy is not only unjust and inhumane, but it is also duplicative,” said John Samuelson, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, in a statement.
Street safety advocacy groups like Make Queens Safer strongly oppose the exemption of bus operators from the failure to yield law because of fruitless MTA investigations.
“The MTA investigations are not reliable; take Seth Kahn’s case, a pedestrian killed by a bus driver,” said Cristina Furlong, from Make Queens Safer. “That bus driver had been taken off his route in the past. It was [the driver’s] first day back on the job – nothing happened to him. There are too many cases where no one is accountable. This shows that the NYPD needs to be more involved.”
City Councilman I. Daneek Miller, a former MTA bus operator and union member, introduced the bill and shares the same concerns as the Transport Workers Union Local 100.
“Ultimately, attempts on both sides are for better and safer streets. If somone gets injured, or even worse, it’s a fatal accident. That’s the end, that bus driver doesnt get behind the wheel. The NYPD highway investigation team is much more qualified to lead a bus accident compared to a regular NYPD officer who doesn’t have the training for these kinds of accidents,” said Miller, who has trained in bus accident investigation. “We cannot create an environment where bus drivers are scared to do their job.”
But his appeal on perspective is astigmatic for grieving mothers like Judith Kottick, who lost her 23-year-old daughter Ella Kottick-Bandes in a tragic bus accident in Ridgewood in 2013.
“Yes it is unpleasant to be arrested, but it is much, much more unpleasant to lose someone you love. Our family is devastated, we are not going to be the same. That driver, he is gonna have a normal life. He gets to move on from this. They are professional drivers and they should be given the tools needed to do their jobs better,” said Kottick.
The failure to yield came into law as part of Mayor di Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative to curtail pedestrian accidents.
The mayor’s testimony in Albany last week showed continued support for the law, “What the law dictates is, if there is serious injury or fatality and if the officers on the scene determine that it was an avoidable injury or fatality, they are obligated to pursue an arrest. If the officers determine that it was unavoidable, meaning something happened that no driver could have possibly foreseen or responded to in time, they have the option of giving a summons. So this is a law – a new law with a clear standard.”
City Council members Peter Koo (D-Flushing) and Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria) originally showed support for the bill. Costa pulled his support for the bill and recently Koo also dropped his support after a bus driver ran over a 15-year-old girl in Brooklyn, according to a City Council source. The bus driver was charged with failure to yield and failure to exercise due care.
Reach Reporter Sadef Ali Kully by e-mail at skull
