Dems urge Felder to green light speed camera bill

ALBANY – With the clock ticking down toward the end of the state Legislature’s session, Senate Democrats and traffic safety advocates on Tuesday demanded that Brooklyn Sen. Simcha Felder stop being the “roadblock” to renewing and expanding New York City’s speed camera program.

“If my bill does not pass, all the cameras will go away,” said Sen. Jose Peralta (D-Queens), who has sponsored legislation that would reauthorize the speed camera program and increase their number from 140 to 290. The program is set to expire on July 25.

Peralta’s bill, which has the backing of Mayor de Blasio and the City Council, remains bottled up in the Felder-controlled Cities Committee, which must approve the measure before it can reach the Senate floor for a vote.

“Sen. Felder, lives will be lost,” Peralta said at a Capitol press conference. “We are urging you to do the right thing.”

Peralta was backed up at his press conference by several advocates for the bill, including parents who have lost children in traffic accidents.

“There is not a day that I don’t cry,” said Queens resident Raul Ampuero, whose 9-year-old son Giovanni was killed by a hit-and-run driver at 70th St. and Northern Blvd. in Jackson Heights in April.

“This shouldn’t happen to any parent and this (bill) is for the best interests of our kids,” Ampuero said.

Felder, a Democrat who has aligned himself with the Senate’s ruling Republican conference, has introduced his own bill that would tie an extension — but not an expansion — of the camera program to a proposal to place city cops at schools.

“This is also related to children’s safety,” Felder told the Daily News. “All I am suggesting is that whatever revenue they get from the cameras should go to put a cop in front of – not in – schools…It’s not two different topics. It’s the same topic.”

Felder’s proposal, however, has been a nonstarter with City Hall and Democrats in the Legislature — and time is running out for them to break the impasse. The Legislature’s session is scheduled to end on June 20.