NY's DMV wants tougher penalties for high-risk drivers. What new rules are they proposing?

New York is targeting high-risk drivers with a slate of new regulations to get them off the road at a time when traffic fatalities are surging.

For the first time, drivers with alcohol or drug-related driving convictions will incur points that could lead to license revocations.

And the time frame for accumulating 11 violation points — the trigger for possible suspension — will stretch from 18 months to two years, a tweak state officials says could increase by 40% the number of drivers declared habitual offenders.

“The message is simple,” Mark J.F. Schroeder, the commissioner of the state Department of Motor Vehicles said last week. “If your actions behind the wheel put others in danger, you don’t belong in the driver’s seat.”

Additionally, the rule changes will allow the DMV to go back four years in a driver’s record, instead of the current three, in assessing whether to re-license a driver.

The public has until Nov. 6 to comment on the new regulations. After that, they will be added to the arsenal of restrictions New York relies on to keep high-risk drivers off the road.

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Why are traffic fatalities increasing in NY?

The move comes as traffic fatalities have ticked up in New York and across the U.S. despite there being fewer vehicles on the road than in the years before the pandemic.

Last year, New York tallied 1,148 traffic fatalities, a 23% increase from 2019. There were another 1,157 fatalities in 2021, according to a study released in June by TRIP, a transportation research group.

Since the start of the pandemic, drivers have been taking greater risks — not wearing seat belts and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, safety experts say. Nationally, between 2019 and 2022, there was a 22% increase in alcohol-related fatalities on the road and a 20% increase in deaths of passengers not wearing seatbelts.

The DMV proposals are designed to reverse those trends by, among other things, reducing to four the number of alcohol or drug-related driving convictions needed before a driver’s license can be permanently denied. The current total is 5.

Under the current regulations, roughly 10,000 drivers with four alcohol or drugged-driving incidents on their record are eligible to get their licenses back, state officials say.

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Paige Carbone, the regional executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving for New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, say the proposals do little to keep drunk drivers off the road.

“We don’t think it’s enough,” Carbone said. “We like the effort. We applaud the effort. But we feel that too many people with revoked licenses will continue to drive.”

MADD wants the state to require drivers with drunk-driving convictions to install ignition interlocks on their vehicle, which would require a breath sample to gauge blood-alcohol content before the vehicle starts.

Drivers with three alcohol or drug-related driving convictions, plus another serious driving offense, would also face permanent forfeiture under the proposed rule changes. And, drivers with three alcohol or drug-related convictions and no other serious offenses could be denied an application for re-licensing for two years.

One in every five convicted of drinking and driving are recidivists and 44% of fatal crashes in the state are alcohol or drug-related, according to the state.

“These proposals will provide a vital next step in protecting the motoring public from recidivist alcohol- and drug-related offenders who pose a real threat to highway safety,” the DMV notes in defending the proposed rule changes in the stage register.

Drivers with a conviction for alcohol or drug-related driving would incur 14 points in violations under the proposal. In the past, points were not assessed because those drivers were already facing criminal penalties. But in recent years, state officials have recognized the need for an additional deterrent.

What other changes proposed for NY drivers?

In addition, the DMV’s point system for violators would, also for the first time, include violations for speeding in a work zone, driving without a license, leaving the scene of a personal injury or crash or striking a bridge.

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And point violations would be increased from five to eight for drivers who pass a stopped school bus. In 2019, the state allowed the use of cameras to identify drivers who pass school buses illegally.

Between 2021 and 2022, violations for passing a stopped school bus increased nearly 7% and are predicted to jump by 15% this year.

“This violation is particularly egregious because it shows a disregard for more vulnerable roads users — especially children,” state officials write in the proposal.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY high-risk drivers targeted with new proposed rules. What are they?