From what we’ve seen lately, it appears that the DMV may be encouraging judges at the TVB to crack down on drivers who continue to ignore seat belt and cell phone laws.

Both violations carry no points. In the past, we routinely told potential and existing clients not to bother retaining our firm to fight cell phone or seat belt tickets unless it was a situation where the individual had some serious existing license issues or we had some reason to believe a conviction would affect the driver’s insurance. Recently, we’ve changed our policy based on case results we’ve either been involved with or been informed of after the fact.

In multiple cases, we’ve seen judges issue suspensions to drivers convicted of driving while using a cell phone or without a seat belt in NYC where one or more such conviction was already on their driving record. We’ve seen too many examples of this to call it a coincidence and we’re now advising anyone with a seat belt or cell phone ticket answerable to the TVB to at least talk to one of our attorneys before proceeding under a false sense of “no points can’t hurt me” security.

Right now the problem is unique to the Traffic Violation Bureau which handles traffic tickets issued in New York City as well as parts of Buffalo, Rochester and Suffolk County. TVB judges have the discretion to suspend motorists for just about any reason. Compare this to the local county, town and village court judges who generally leave the decision to suspend up to the DMV itself. The DMV generally sticks to the “11 points and you are out” rule of thumb and wouldn’t act on the addition of a zero point violation to a driving record and issue an otherwise discretionary suspension.

Feel free to read more about the differences between the TVB and the local traffic courts throughout New York or to contact us if you have any questions about a seat belt ticket or cell phone ticket in NY.

Submitted by Scott Feifer

Speeding tickets are up along Route 304 in Clarkstown.  Watch your speed…particularly where the speed limit dips to 35 MPH in the New City - Bardonia area.

Why is this noteworthy?

One, it’s a good example of how the speed limit can vary on a single roadway.  Sections of Route 304 are 55 mph limit.  It’s easy to forget to slow down when the speed limit changes and officers are most likely to enforce near the area where the limit drops.

Second, I grew up right around there.  It’s a stretch I’ve personally driven hundreds of times and almost never at 35mph.  An otherwise mundane story of speeding tickets that happened to hit particularly close to home.

If you’ve been issued a Rockland County traffic ticket, feel free to contact us anytime.

Submitted by Scott Feifer

I have a feeling this story will make people happy.

City parking enforcement officers in Buffalo, NY (Erie County), who issue the orange- colored parking tickets we all hate to see when we get back to our parked car, have themselves been issued numerous New York traffic tickets recently.

Buffalo police officers have been issuing the parking enforcement officers vehicle and traffic tickets for failure to wear seat belts.  In other words, while patrolling for parking violations, they are committing moving violations.

Apparently this is payback by the police for a number of parking tickets on their privately owned vehicles when they park in restricted areas outside Police Headquarters.

It’s a legitimate ticket war.

The city corporation counsel’s office actually had to step in and issue a ruling that parking enforcers driving city vehicles are exempt from wearing seat belts.  They site NYS Vehicle and Traffic Law Sec. 1229-C(4) which exempts “authorized emergency vehicles” from the seat belt regulations.

In my opinion, this exemption does not apply to the parking enforcement vehicles.  The NYS VTL sets forth a number of vehicles which qualify as “emergency vehicles”.  The definition is pretty specific and goes as far as including police bicycles and sanitation patrol vehicles.  There is no mention at all of parking enforcement.

Hopefully they can keep issuing tickets to each other and forget about the rest of us.

If you’ve been issued an Erie County traffic ticket or other NY traffic violation, feel free to contact us anytime.

Submitted by Scott Feifer

Two of the professions historically linked with car crashes have been doctors (to help the injured) and lawyers (to help the injured collect).

Turns out these professions are actually linked with car accidents in a more direct fashion. Doctors and lawyers are at the top of a report recently released by Quality Planning Corp. setting forth how frequently people in various occupations are involved in accidents. Doctors ranked first and lawyers second.

Architects were third. Real Estate Brokers were fourth.

Students were far and away the category most likely to be involved in accidents but are considered separate from the other categories because they are not a “profession”.

Quality Planning Corp. is a California company in the business of compiling information for insurance companies and will occasionally issue reports related to their findings.

While the reports are based on fact, we can only theorize with respect to why certain professions or groups rank higher than others.

With students, it’s easy to see the connection. A lack of experience seems to be the most logical prevailing factor.

With doctors and lawyers and the other high ranking professions, the connection isn’t as clear. One theory is that professions with long hours and higher stress are more likely to be at the top of the list.

For every 1,000 students, there are about 152 accidents and 87 speeding tickets per year, the report showed. That compares with 109 accidents and 44 speeding tickets for doctors and 106 accidents and 37 speeding tickets for lawyers.

The remaining professions on the top 10 list of those most likely to be involved in a crash, starting with number five, are enlisted military personnel, social workers, manual laborers, analysts, engineers and consultants.

The safest on the list were farmers.  Open spaces, less urban areas and slow moving farm vehicles perhaps?

The next safest were firefighters, with 67 annual accidents per 1,000, and pilots, with 75.  Note they also ranked 29th and 33rd (out of 40), respectively, in the number of speeding tickets they received.  This makes sense–these are people whose very job is all about safety.

The next three safest–all tied–were homemakers, politicians and members of the clergy.

The top ten list on insure.com can be found here and the orginal article by Ken Valenti of the Journal News reporting the findings can be found here.

Between 2006 and 2008, 553 tickets were issued for speeding at 100 mph or higher in Orange County, Sullivan County and Ulster County.

Almost half of those were issued on State Route 17.

In comparison, police issued 160 tickets to drivers of 100 mph or more on the Thruway, and 82 such tickets on I-84.

As a traffic ticket attorney (and an occasional user of Route 17) I’m tempted to be cynical about the reasons for the higher number of extreme speeding tickets on Route 17 in comparison to other roadways.  Route 17 is one of the most heavily patrolled roadways I’ve seen.  You can’t drive 5 miles without seeing either a car stop in progress or an officer waiting on the side of the road ready to initiate a car stop at any moment.  The attorney advertisements on the billboards along Route 17 are a testament to the excessive number of traffic tickets issued along the roadway. Moreover, some of the most difficult courts we’ve dealt with have been in Orange and Sullivan County which could suggest, if we are being cynical about it, an overall system that is too harsh on drivers.

However, no matter how you look at it, or what the reason for the big numbers on Route 17 is, there is absolutely no excuse for driving at speeds in excess of 100 mph.  It puts yourself and anyone else on the road in extreme danger.  There are formulas involved when designing expressways.  Engineers make sure there is enough time and space between exit signs and ramps for drivers to react safely. Curves are designed to be handled at specific speeds.  Extreme speeding severly impacts a motorist’s field of vision and reduces reaction time.  The probability of a crash increases dramatically.

If you think you have some legal justification for driving that speed, it’s unlikely you do.  It would be an extremely rare situation where the law allowed for an ordinary vehicle and untrained emergency driver to proceed at that speed instead of stopping and calling 911.

While Route 17 may be considered by some to be one giant speed trap, I hope everyone driving over 100 mph is indeed “trapped” sooner than later.  It’s just not safe.

Submitted by Scott Feifer.