Vision Zero: Aggressively Enforce DWI During Winter Holiday Season

Image Courtesy of NYCDOT

NYPD Will Focus Holiday Enforcement and Education Efforts on Speeding and Driving While Intoxicated

City Also Highlights Important State Legislation That Will Target DWI and Other Violations

The New York City Police Department (NYPD), the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT), NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) stood outside One Police Plaza today to announce major initiatives to crack down on speeding and drunk driving going into the holiday season.

Today’s Vision Zero announcement includes:

NYPD Holiday Enforcement: NYPD will be actively enforcing laws against speeding and DWI throughout the holiday season and into the new year. Enforcement will be conducted by NYPD Highway Patrol and local precinct officers using sight and remote sensing devices on major highways, roads, and secondary streets where excessive speeds have previously been observed, including by DOT speed cameras.

Legislation to Combat Dangerous Driving, including DWI: More than 30 percent of crashes in New York state involve alcohol. Since the pandemic, the share of traffic fatalities in New York City related to DWI has increased, reflecting larger national trends involving alcohol consumption. In 2023, 50 traffic fatalities in New York City were directly tied to DWI, a 24 percent increase over the prior three year average of 40.3 fatalities. More recently, on July 4 of this year, an allegedly intoxicated driver killed four pedestrians in a single crash on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

To address the ongoing problem, the city will also continue to support two important pieces of legislation sponsored in the last Albany session:

• Legislation sponsored by State Senator John Mannion and Assemblymember William Magnarelli that would reduce so called ‘drugged-driving.’ New York remains one of the only states where law enforcement officers must provide a toxicology test in order to prosecute a driver for driving while impaired by drugs. This bill would allow Drug Recognition Experts to charge drivers based on their observations — and help deter this dangerous behavior.
• Legislation sponsored by State Senator John Liu and Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon would lower the DWI threshold from .08 percent to .05 percent blood-alcohol concentration (BAC), the level at which impaired drivers are more likely to be involved in a crash. This would align New York with peer countries across the world — including Australia, Argentina, France, South Africa, and Japan.