{"id":259696904,"date":"2013-03-25T18:01:44","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T18:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=259696904"},"modified":"2013-03-25T18:01:44","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T18:01:44","slug":"driver-safety-laws-an-old-approach-thats-worth-reviving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=259696904","title":{"rendered":"Driver Safety Laws: An Old Approach That\u2019s Worth Reviving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Steve Vaccaro, Streets Blog<br \/>\nIn the aftermath of a crash, we inevitably ask: How can a dangerous driver be kept off the road? It seems that the entire automobile transportation regime is aimed at keeping the driver behind the wheel. Absent impairment or flight from the scene of the crash, police quickly conclude that \u201cno criminality is suspected.\u201d The name of the responsible driver may be carefully guarded by police, even when the name of the victim or selective details are not. Government compels the insurance market to continue insuring the responsible driver, even if the market would consider the driver too risky to insure. The under-resourced legal system and insurance industry neglect and obstruct crash litigation, pressuring victims to simply accept whatever insurance is available without holding the driver personally responsible.<br \/>\nBut it wasn\u2019t always that way.<br \/>\nBefore the advent of compulsory auto insurance laws in the 1950s, New York and most other states had \u201csafety responsibility\u201d laws instead. Under these laws, drivers involved in crashes had their licenses suspended until they posted a bond or demonstrated insurance in an amount sufficient to compensate the crash victim. Based on their involvement in a crash, these drivers would also be required to maintain insurance as a condition of keeping their driving privileges.<br \/>\nUnder New York\u2019s safety responsibility law (codified as Section 94-b of the Vehicle and Traffic Law), the crash victim had the right to directly petition the commissioner of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles for suspension of license of any driver involved in a crash causing personal injury or $25 of property damage. Absent the requisite showing of financial responsibility, the commissioner was required to suspend the license of a driver within 45 days \u2014 even if there had not been any finding of fault. At least for those drivers without insurance and financial means, this approach resulted in prompt suspension of driving privileges for drivers involved in crashes.<br \/>\nThough ensuring compensation of victims was clearly the primary purpose of the safety responsibility law, it also had an undeniable deterrent effect. As one New York court explained in 1942, \u201cthe penalty which \u00a7 94\u2013b imposes for injury due to careless driving is not for the protection of the [crash victim] merely, but to enforce a public policy that irresponsible drivers shall not, with impunity, be allowed to injure their fellows.\u201d<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.streetsblog.org\/2013\/03\/19\/driver-safety-laws-an-old-approach-thats-worth-reviving\/\">https:\/\/www.streetsblog.org\/2013\/03\/19\/driver-safety-laws-an-old-approach-thats-worth-reviving\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Steve Vaccaro, Streets Blog In the aftermath of a crash, we inevitably ask: How can a dangerous driver be kept off the road? It seems that the entire automobile transportation regime is aimed at keeping the driver behind the wheel. Absent impairment or flight from the scene of the crash, police quickly conclude that &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=259696904\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Driver Safety Laws: An Old Approach That\u2019s Worth Reviving&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259696904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259696904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=259696904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259696904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=259696904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=259696904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=259696904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}