Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney and Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly joined Queens DA Melinda Katzand Bronx DA Darcel Clark to call on the state Legislature to pass the “Deadly Driving Bill” at a rally on May 9 in the Bronx. The rally was held at the spot where Mohammed Rahman, a 67-year-old grandfather, was killed by an alleged drugged driver in September 2013 while crossing the street to attend prayer services at the local mosque.
The bipartisan bill, sponsored by New York State Senator John Mannion (D-Syracuse) and Assembly Transportation Committee Chair Bill Magnarelli (D-Syracuse), would close the loophole regarding the list of illicit drugs under Section 3306 of the Public Health Law in which someone can be charged with drugged driving. Currently, those who are under the influence of a drug that is not on the list can avoid prosecution by refusing a drug test and not telling officers which drugs they ingested.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), as of 2022, New York was one of only four states that still use a list for drugged driving. In January 2023, NTSB sent letters to the governors of these states, including New York, with Safety Recommendation H-22-044 supporting impaired driving charges for all drugs that impair driving, without reference to a list. The proposed Deadly Driving Bill’s definition of “drug” in the Vehicle and Traffic Law meets the NTSB recommendation.
In January 2024, Tierney traveled to Albany to urge lawmakers to promote the passage of the Deadly Driving Bill. He was joined by impaired driving victims’ families, community members, district attorneys, lawmakers, traffic safety advocates, criminal justice professionals, and members of the Coalition to Protect New Yorkers from Drugged Driving.
“No one is immune from becoming a victim of a drugged driving crash,” Tierney said. “This Mother’s Day weekend, there will be needlessly empty seats at family tables because of people killed by the preventable crime of impaired driving.” He called the current law “dangerous and it must be changed.”
“Drivers cannot get behind the wheel if they are impaired by alcohol or any type of drug because they risk the lives of other drivers and pedestrians, as well as their own,” Clark added. “Passing this legislation will give us more tools to hold dangerous drivers accountable and ultimately make our streets safer.”
Nassau County had “one of the deadliest years” on its roadways last year as the result of “reckless drunk and drugged driving,” Donnelly said. “Drugged drivers are escaping accountability every day because of archaic impaired driving laws, and they are putting the lives of New York residents at risk.”
According to Katz, 70 people in Queens were killed in vehicular collisions in 2022. last year, it was 89.
“We are experiencing an epidemic of vehicular violence in New York State,” Katz said. “Today, a police officer can observe an obviously impaired driver and that person cannot be arrested and prosecuted unless we can name and prove which specific drug is causing the impairment and that drug appears on the public health law list. Oftentimes, all a driver needs to do at the scene is refuse a drug test to avoid any accountability. Working with our fellow district attorneys, legislators, and safety advocates, we have crafted legislation that will end this madness. This bill fixes a major loophole in our vehicle and traffic law and will make New York a safer place for us and for our children.”
All roadway fatalities in New York have increased, including impaired driving fatalities. But the rate of increase in drug-involved fatalities has outpaced drinking driver fatalities in the last five years. Drug-involved fatalities have increased 35% between 2018 and 2022. The raw number is also higher than alcohol and represents 23% of the total number of roadway fatalities in the state.
Further, according to the Institute for Traffic Safety Management & Research, there has been an 87% increase in the number of drivers in fatal crashes testing positive for at least one drug on the Public Health Law Section 3306 list in the decade ending in 2022. The number does not include drugs that are not on the Public Health Law list or that were not tested for.
“The use of drugs and alcohol has skyrocketed post-COVID and it’s likely that more people than ever before are driving while under the influence,” said Family and Children’s Association President/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds. “An impaired driving arrest, while unpleasant, can be the milestone event that interrupts a progressively destructive pattern of risky behaviors, facilitates entry into addiction treatment and paves the road to recovery before someone is injured or killed. We need laws that hold people accountable, prevent senseless deaths and protect public health.”
Darrin Grondel, the senior vice president of traffic safety for the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility and director of the National alliance to Stop Impaired Driving, added, “Drunk and drugged driving are 100 percent preventable and claim far too many lives across the United States annually, and New York is no exception. As we continue to see alarming increases in drugged driving and poly- substance impaired driving, we urge the New York legislature to immediately pass [the Drugged Driving Bill]. This measure will provide increased safety protections to all New Yorkers by removing a dangerous loophole in the current law that allows impaired drivers to escape arrest and prosecution.”