Councilman calls for more accountability for reckless drivers

Brooklyn City Councilman Brad Lander is calling for legislation that would crack down on reckless driving.

Called the Reckless Driver Accountability Act, the bill is in response to a crash in Brooklyn's Park Slope section March 5 that killed 4-year-old Abigail Blumenstein and 1-year-old Jonathan Lew. The 44-year-old driver, Dorothy Bruns, was indicted in May on multiple charges, including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. The Brooklyn district attorney says Bruns suffered a seizure at the time of the crash and had been instructed not to drive following a previous crash and hospitalization. Bruns had at least five traffic violations in 2017 alone.

The legislation contains three measures, such as booting or impounding cars that get five or more red light and speed camera violations within a year, expanding the driver accountability program and requiring the city to create an annual study on dangerous driving.

Lander says it's appalling that drivers with multiple violations are still on the roads.

"There's just no consequence even if they do it over and over and over," he said.

The bill will be introduced at a City Council meeting this week. Lander says he's had a good response from many of his colleagues.