Albany, NY – Assemblymember Amy Paulin (D-Scarsdale) cheered policies enacted in the state budget to provide more tools for the State Police, the State Department of Transportation, and the Department of Motor Vehicles to keep unscrupulous limousine operators from imperiling passengers and other drivers by putting unsafe stretch limousines on the road. She also urged the adoption of additional regulations to ensure the safe operation of stretch limousines even after they have passed inspection, including a number of bills she introduced last year after the horrific tragedy involving a stretch limousine in Schoharie, NY.

“Our budget included a number of long-overdue measures to make it easier for inspectors and law enforcement to keep stretch limousines that fail inspection off the road, and stiffened penalties and insurance liability for limousine operators acting in bad faith,” said Assemblymember Paulin. “That will keep many unsafe vehicles off the road, but I continue to believe we need to do more to increase the safe operation of all stretch limousines. Stretch limousines are the vehicle of choice for so many happy occasions, from family events, to birthdays, to weddings to the annual ritual of prom. We need to make sure we are doing everything we can to prevent the operation of these vehicles in an unsafe manner that could put our children and our loved ones in danger.”

As more details of the Schoharie crash come to light, criminal charges have been brought against the limousine operator who owned the car and allegedly went to great lengths to avoid the required state inspections or to abide by state laws when the vehicle failed inspection and had its registration revoked. Clearly, stronger enforcement and more accountability for operators acting in bad faith are necessary. To that end, the 2019-2020 state budget enacts new regulations making it a class E felony to knowingly operate a limo where such operation causes the death of another person, and increases civil penalties and fines for violating DOT safety regulations or operating a vehicle without DOT authority—for example, because the vehicle failed inspection. Additionally, commercial vehicles with a seating capacity of eight or more passengers will be required to carry increased insurance of at least $1.5 million in coverage.

The recently-passed budget also empowers the State Police, DOT, and DMV to take tougher steps to ensure compliance. Specifically, State Police and DOT will have the authority to retrieve vehicle plates when limousines are out of compliance, and the DMV will be able to refuse and revoke registrations for limousines that do not meet federal safety standards. Any inspection station found to have improperly issued inspections three times within an 18-month period will have its operating license suspended.

Although the budget makes great strides in strengthening the inspection and enforcement regime, other issues relating to the safe operations of stretch limousines remain.

The budget adds stretch limousines to the list of passenger vehicles prohibited from making U-turns – a step Assemblymember Paulin had previously introduced as a standalone bill. Assemblymember Paulin has introduced a number of additional bills to promote the safe operation of all stretch limousines, including those that cleanly pass inspection. These include:

• A. 712, which would require drivers licensed to operate stretch limousines to submit to periodic drug and alcohol testing. The Times-Union recently reported that the post-mortem toxicology report of the driver of the stretch limousine in the Schoharie tragedy found a “significant” amount of marijuana in his system, as well as anti-seizure medication.
• A. 2157, which would require seatbelts to be present in stretch limousines, extends the current seat belt requirements to drivers and passengers in stretch limousines, and requires signage within the vehicle stating the requirement.
• A. 2228, which would require that carbon monoxide monitors be placed in the cabins of stretch limousines.
• Finally, A. 1316 follows the recommendations from Section IV of the final report recommendations of the Suffolk County Supreme Court Special Grand Jury, which was impaneled after a July 2015 stretch limousine crash in Cutchogue, N.Y. by establishing a Passenger Safety Task Force to study the safety of stretch limousines. This task force would include agency heads, gubernatorial and legislative appointees, limousine industry officials and community groups to study the safety of stretch limousines and make recommendations for further improvements by regulation or legislation.

“Our budget policies took a big step forward in stopping unscrupulous operators from putting their drivers and passengers and the general public at-risk,” said Assemblymember Paulin. “Unfortunately, we have seen too many crashes and preventable tragedies even from vehicles that passed inspection but were operated in an unsafe manner. We don’t know whether any of these individual proposals will prevent the next Cutchogue or Schoharie, but we owe it to our loved ones and our drivers to do everything we can to keep our roads safe.”