Legal news for New York City Truck Accident Lawyers— New York Governor proposed safety plan for state roads and regulations for trucks.
NY governor and Westchester County executive propose new safety plan for trucks on New York State roads.
Westchester County, NY (NewYorkInjuryNews.com) – On Wednesday, October 14, 2009. Governor David A. Paterson in cooperation with Westchester County Executive Andrew J. Spano made a public statement announcing a new state law to help New York have safer roads, and to reduce the number of bridge strikes that occur every year due to Global Positioning Systems (GPS) routing.
The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) www.nysdot.gov has recorded 1,400 bridge strikes just in the past 15 years, where four out of five times the most damage is done along the Hutchinson River Parkway in Westchester County.
Truck drivers that travel through New York reported accidents where their GPS has directed the drivers through State roads that are off limits to trucks. When truckers follow routes that use roads that are illegal, there have been reported accidents of trucks crashing into bridges through low clearances, which damaged overpasses and caused massive traffic delays.
Governor David A. Paterson and Westchester County Executive Andrew J. Spano just recently announced the legislative plan of action to create safer roads in the State. The Governors plan involves enforcing current traffic safety regulations regarding trucks to decrease the number of bridge strikes in Westchester County and all over the State. The new laws will be motivation for truckers to pay attention to the road, and to re-calculate their route to avoid off limits roads. NYSDOT research showed that 81 percent of overpass strikes by commercial trucks are due to GPS routings.
Governor Paterson’s new anticipated legislation with Westchester County is to increase penalties for the truck drivers who continue to include the parkways in their travel routes, permit police to temporarily possess the trucks that are pulled over and give tickets; require truck drivers to use GPS systems that re-route around the State parkways, and require all large commercial trucks to use enhanced GPS devices that route them away from restricted roads. Another facet of the plan is to permit the State of New York to recover most of the costs of the damages done to bridges from trucking businesses or the insurance company. Governor Paterson addressed the new legislature from the standpoint of citizen’s safety by stating that this “legislation will ensure that our roads and bridges are safer for New Yorkers so that we can divert money currently spent on clean up costs to schools, hospitals and social services for our neediest citizens.”
Governor Paterson thanked the County Executive Spano and Westchester County for their assistance and their ideas to solve this Citizen Safety issue. County Executive Spano stated that “through legislation and cooperation, we can reduce the number of these accidents, and prevent a tragedy.’’
Bridget Hom
NewYorkInjuryNews.com