NY lawmaker introducing bills to combat impaired, distracted driving
By: Robert Brodsky, Newsday
NEW YORK — Rep. Kathleen Rice will introduce a package of bills to combat impaired or distracted driving, including a requirement that within 10 years all new cars be equipped with advanced technology that uses infrared light to detect if a driver is under the influence.
The bills would also set federal criminal penalties — similar to those in effect in New York — against motorists who drive intoxicated or impaired with a child in the vehicle and would create a new education grant program to address distracted driving.
“Taken together, nearly 15,000 were killed in 2018 because of an impaired or distracted driver,” said Rice (D-Garden City), a former Nassau County district attorney. “These are deadly and tragic epidemics that have claimed too many lives and destroyed too many families. It’s past time that we take action at the federal level to end this crisis.”
