Pol aims to boot dangerous drivers from streets

DANGEROUS drivers will get the boot from city streets under a bill Councilman Brad Lander announced Tuesday.

Lander’s Reckless Driver Accountability Act will boot bad drivers’ cars or impound them. The enforcement will target cars that get five red-light and speedcamera violations in a year, forcing owners to take a driving course. Lander (DBrooklyn) says vehicles flagged for at least five camera tickets in a year make up 1% of the city’s cars, or about 26,000 vehicles.

The legislation set to be introduced Thursday takes aim at drivers like Dorothy Bruns, who is facing manslaughter charges after police said she mowed down two children, Joshua Lew and Abigail Blumenstein, in March while running a red light in Park Slope. Ruthie Ann Miles, Abigail’s pregnant mother, was injured in the crash and lost the baby she was carrying.

Before the fatal crash, Bruns’ car had been cited four times for running red lights and another four times for speeding through a school zone, between July 2016 and October 2017. Bruns had allegedly ignored a doctor’s warnings to give up her license.

Lander said he also wants to give the bad drivers an incentive to take a 90-minute accountability course modeled after a pilot program at the Red Hook Community Justice Center.