Cracking down on speeders

[DOC22 1]

If you are an habitual speeder, Check this out!!!!

 

   

A speeding ticket's ripple effect

By GREG CLARY

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: December 2, 2004)

If a police officer has stopped you for going 22 mph or more over the speed limit after Nov. 17, and a court finds you guilty of that, you'll help the state balance its budget.

Thanks to a little-known part of the state budget that took effect in the middle of last month, drivers who rack up six points on their license in 18 months not only will have to pay the fines and surcharges, but also must pay the state $100 a year for the next three years. Each additional point on the driver's license past six adds $25 a year to the penalty.

That means a ticket with a $200 fine and a $55 surcharge at the time of conviction could end up costing a driver with six points $555. No defensive-driving class can reduce that amount.

Additionally, if a person is found to be driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the state would charge an extra $250 a year for three years.

The state will suspend the driver's license of anyone who doesn't pay the extra money, according to the new law.

"This is a crackdown on poor driving," said Joseph Picchi, a spokesman for the state's Department of Motor Vehicles. "This will now be additional money out of their pocket."

The money goes into the state's general fund.

"It sounds like a case of 'rake us over the coals,' " said Calvin Diggs, a Cortlandt resident who owns East Coast Airport and Limousine Service. "How were we supposed to know about this?"

Diggs spends so much time on the road driving clients that his odds of getting a ticket are much higher than the average driver, so he has to be extra careful about his speed.

"I am rush hour," he said yesterday, joking. "If you want to know where the traffic jam is, call me. I'm in it."

A spokesman for Gov. George Pataki's budget office estimated yesterday that by the time the program hits the third year, annual income for the state would be about $40 million.

"The driver-responsibility assessment is an effort to ensure our roadways and bridges are as safe as possible for law-abiding motorists and their families and to deter drivers from driving recklessly or ever getting behind the wheel of a car while under the influence of drugs and alcohol," said Scott Reif, a budget division spokesman.

Picchi said he didn't know when bills would be sent out but estimated it would be after the first of the year. He said the state still was estimating how many drivers would be affected by the change.

Lawyers who specialize in defending vehicle and traffic cases said the new law would increase their business because drivers would be more likely to fight tickets.

Zev Goldstein, a Monsey lawyer, said the state might as well call the surcharge what it is — a tax.

"They call it the 'driver responsibility assessment,' " he said. "But if you add tax to it, you'd have a easy way to remember it — DRAT."

Goldstein said he was surprised to learn that drivers couldn't help themselves by taking a defensive-driving class. The class still would allow them to lower their point totals to cut down on the likelihood of losing their licenses, but it won't affect the annual payment to the state.

"It's a sin tax," said Goldstein, a former prosecutor in Albany. "Who's going to complain? You did the crime, now do the time. Is anybody going to want to help the people who speed?"

Matis Wolfberg, a Spring Valley lawyer whose Web site "notspeeding.com" helps motorists fight tickets, said he wondered about the constitutionality of the extra charges.

"I'm not a constitutional-law expert, but double jeopardy comes to mind," Wolfberg said. "It seems like you're charging people four times for one incident. It's just another desperate move by the state to grab more money from the public."

New York's DMV Web site shows that out-of-state traffic violations do not add points to a New York state driver record, unless they occur in Ontario or Quebec.

The site goes on to remind drivers that the DMV's point system has nothing to do with insurance companies' evaluations of a person's driving record.

[Guest rreimund]

Reminds me of this sap...

http://forums1.roadfly.org/mini/forums/coo.../5995688-1.html