New York Personal Injury Law Blog

New York residents should know that only a few countries in the world, including the U.S. and Mexico, allow drivers a blood alcohol limit as high as 0.08 percent. There are some countries such as Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Russia where it is illegal to drive under the influence of any alcohol at all.

The fact is, drunk driving is blamed for about one-third of all motor vehicle crash fatalities. Young adults, bikers and drivers with a prior DUI record are among the riskiest groups for this behavior. It takes a healthy liver an average of about one hour to process each ounce of alcohol, but an unhealthy liver can take even more time.

Proposed legislation under consideration by the City Council would legalize motorized e-scooters and e-bikes in New York City. If the four bills pass and become law, they would make it easier for people to take advantage of emerging transportation options that are environmentally friendly. They would also put more scooters on the road.

The first of the bills, sponsored by a councilman from the Bronx, would make e-scooters legal and cap their top speed at 15 mph. This is similar to the ways in which e-scooters are regulated in other parts of the country, such as San Francisco and Washington, D.C. A second bill would make e-bikes with throttles legal and cap their top speed at 20 mph. This bill would also lower the fines levied for use of unauthorized bikes to $100 from $500.

Drivers in New York may be worried about the impact of distracted driving on road safety. Despite warnings, public awareness campaigns and new laws, people continue to text, surf and chat on their smartphones while behind the wheel of their cars. Even public officials have been seen live streaming on Facebook while driving. However, the families of people who have been killed in crashes due to distracted driving are demanding tougher penalties and harsher enforcement for operating a vehicle while distracted.

Traffic fatalities have gone up around the United States in recent years, and many attribute at least part of that spike to the emergence of the smartphone. Many drivers struggle not to look at their phones, send texts or check social media while sitting in slow traffic or at a red light. Many states, like New York, have passed laws that prohibit the use of handheld devices while driving; any interaction with electronics must be hands-free. Similar laws have been passed in Rhode Island and Oregon. One company that monitors phone use claims that distracted driving dropped by 19 percent in the first month after the laws were adopted.

Car safety tech can cut down on crashes by 40 percent and crash-related fatalities by 30 percent, according to federal estimates. Yet it can backfire on drivers who do not understand its limitations. This overreliance on safety tech, which can be seen in many drivers across New York, is the subject of a AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety report. The results raise questions about how drivers will adapt to a future of semiautonomous vehicles.

For example, among people who have blind-spot monitoring systems in their vehicles, 80 percent overestimated its ability to detect fast-approaching vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians. Twenty percent put so much trust in the feature that they never check for oncoming vehicles when changing lanes.