How NYS bill would crack down on drugs and drivers

Three years ago, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended New York join most of the rest of the country by closing a gap in state law that advocates say permits drugged drivers to walk free. At a Manhattan symposium Wednesday, prosecutors and state lawmakers said 2026 could be the year.

New York is one of just four states — the others are Alaska, Florida and Massachusetts — to require law enforcement to name the drug and for it to be on a statutorily established list of controlled substances before they can charge someone with driving under the influence.

While alcohol remains the leading cause of impaired driving, drugged driving is a growing threat, according to the NTSB. State data showed about a quarter of Long Island’s fatal crashes had a “drug-involved driver” in 2023. Authorities on the Island and across New York have called the state’s current approach unwieldy as law enforcement officers encounter drivers under the influence of synthetic drugs like bromazolam, xylazine and propofol, along with hundreds of more obscure varieties that are created every year.

Proposed legislation

“We now have synthetic drugs, created in labs, continually being changed and peddled on our streets,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told those gathered for the symposium at Touro University’s Times Square campus, including families of people killed in crashes with drugged drivers.

A bill now in the State Legislature, introduced last March but amended this week, would expand the legal basis of intoxication from alcohol to other drugs, including those not on the state list or those not able to be identified.

Hundreds of new drugs are created every year, Tierney said. “There is no list that could hope to keep up.”

The proposed legislation would update state law on field testing for drugged driving to include the use of tests that screen for multiple types of drugs and make refusal to take a test a traffic infraction. It would expand the cases where a court can order chemical testing, currently limited to crashes that result in death or serious injury. It would also update law to allow license suspensions for some drivers charged with drugged driving pending prosecution.

Earlier versions of the bill failed to pass in the 2021-22 and 2023-24 legislative sessions.

Tierney said the current version, sponsored by state Sen. Christopher Ryan, a Democrat, who represents a district outside Syracuse, includes “safeguards” that could ease passage this time. They include an exception to the bill for drivers having a medical emergency or allergic reaction and a provision requiring collection of data on the number of stops, arrests and convictions made under the bill, along with demographic data, which Tierney said would be analyzed to determine whether minority motorists are subject to an inordinate number of traffic stops.

The bill also includes a five-year sunset clause, which Tierney said would give lawmakers an opportunity to review its effectiveness.

Family loss

Among those at the symposium were Andrea and Timothy Carpenter of Centereach. Their son, Timothy, 22, was killed in 2023 by a driver who was high on fentanyl. The driver was arrested and later died of a drug overdose.

Timothy Carpenter said the current requirement for law enforcement to identify the specific drug impairing a driver made no sense.

“If you’re drunk, you’re drunk," he said. "If you’re high, you’re high."

In an interview, Assemb. Steve Stern (D-Huntington), a bill co-sponsor, said more legislators would sign on as they familiarized themselves with the type of drug testing used in enforcing the law.

“They still believe that the technology has not kept pace, but that’s no longer true,” Stern said, calling New York’s current system “antiquated.” 

“The technology is there," he added. "We can prove ‘under the influence’ by a requisite level of proof, and it’s being done by just about [all] the rest of the country.” 

A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would review the bill if it passes both houses of the legislature. In January, as part of a package of proposals to strengthen the state’s criminal justice system, Hochul said she would propose legislation also aimed at combating drugged driving.

At Wednesday’s event, Empress and Terrance Henderson, of Massapequa, held a picture of their son, Xavier Parris, 26, killed in 2022. He was a passenger in a car with a drunken driver who hit speeds as fast as 97 mph before smashing into a tree. The couple came to the event, Empress Henderson said, “because of the devastation. We could not just sit back and not join.”

Stephen McDermott, of Smithtown, came to honor his brother Michael McDermott, 37, a Kings Park gym teacher and coach killed in 2019 by a driver, speeding and high on fentanyl, who left the scene. Had the proposed law been in force at the time, McDermott said, that man would have been “behind bars,” not driving, “and my brother could have been saved.”

The Carpenters said they had participated in a number of events like Wednesday’s. Each event churns up bad memories. “Everything was taken from us,” Timothy Carpenter said. “He was our only son.” They keep going to the events because “we don’t want anyone to go through what we are going through today,” he said. “I don’t understand how these lawmakers can’t get it together and pass the law.”

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.