'I'm wheely bad'
City to worst drivers: 'Tattle on yourself'
He’ll take their word for it. The much-delayed law Mayor de Blasio is banking on to stop dangerous drivers before another child is mowed down only requires the most reckless motorists to “self-report’’ violations of traffic laws after completing mandatory classes, The Post has learned.
Contract documents for the $2.8 million pilot program require that potential providers only “[r]e-contact class participants in order to conduct self-reporting of behaviors 1-3 months after they take the class.”
The Department of Transportation opted to require only the selfreporting even though the city already maintains an extensive and regularly updated database of driving scofflaws who blow past speed cameras or run red lights.
City Hall was ordered by City Council legislation to mandate that the driving courses keep track of how many drivers commit subsequent violations afterward as one way to track if the program is working, though the law does not specify how the DOT should collect the data.
“The city should check and not just take someone’s word for it,” said Marco Conner DiAquoi, deputy director of Transportation Alternatives, a group that backs stricter driving laws. “The city has the data, they can easily match up the license plates.”
The law requires that drivers who blow past speed cameras in school zones five or more times in a year take driving classes. Motorists busted running red lights policed by cameras 15 or more times in a year are required to sign up as well.
The measure, advanced by Councilman Brad Lander (DBrooklyn), puts teeth in the requirement by authorizing officials to impound the vehicles of drivers who don’t comply.
De Blasio signed the legislation in February 2020 — but his administration OK’d the pact to begin offering classes only Tuesday.
Hizzoner on Thursday blamed the delays on the pandemic and an unnamed city contractor.
“It was one of the things that got put on hold because we did not believe we would be able to do in-person classes, and because we were holding off on a number of areas of spending because we had a very, very dire situation,” de Blasio said, referencing the 2020 budget crisis.
DOT officials said they moved the program in-house after they failed to resolve an unspecified dispute with the initial provider, the National Center for Civic Innovation, part of the Fund for New York.
Pedestrian and cycling advocates have hammered Hizzoner over the holdup following the tragic hit-and-run death of a 3-month-old in Brooklyn. The baby’s mother was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
Cops arrested Tyrik Mott for the deadly crash after he attempted to flee the scene by stealing another vehicle.
Mott’s Honda had been hit with 160 speeding and traffic tickets before the fatal collision, well past the thresholds for attending classes and losing his car if he didn’t.
DOT officials declined to provide to The Post any additional details about the dispute with the Fund for New York or why they opted for self-reporting.