Use new tools for safer roads

Five weeks ago, Richard Riggs, 75, of Holbrook, died in a car crash reportedly caused by other drivers recklessly weaving in and out of lanes near Exit 39 on the Southern State Parkway in Babylon Town. A police probe of the details of the catastrophe remains active.

Long Islanders will do well to remember this every time they see cars racing in traffic, a serious public safety threat on numerous byways and highways.

One enforcement follow-up could come on a state level. Three Long Island lawmakers recently contacted the state Department of Transportation about a proposal that might help catch the purposely reckless in the act and prosecute them.

For the first time, feeds from video cameras could be recorded and used by New York law enforcement where appropriate. So far, three Long Island state lawmakers — Assemb. Michaelle Solages and State Sens. Todd Kaminsky and John Brooks — have called for the change. Their colleagues in both parties should get behind that and push for it, or propose strong alternatives.

With video cameras already posted on many roads over the years to spot accidents, locate snarls and project travel times, you might well ask why their use wasn’t extended to bearing witness to motorists who deliberately pose real-time lethal threats to blameless citizens.

Due to cautions about broadened public surveillance, the original agreement authorizing the cameras barred recordings for use in such investigations. But that "privacy" commitment makes no sense since the roads are public. How would recording the reckless impinge on privacy any more than mass-transit agencies retaining surveillance feeds of crimes on, say, train platforms?

The legislators’ letter asks the DOT "to require all footage from traffic cameras be recorded and maintained for a period of time so that law enforcement agencies can access it . . . to apprehend perpetrators of traffic crimes and keep motorists safe." Some states don’t have recording restrictions. In New Jersey, the period of time to keep the footage is seven days. That sounds like it might work here.

Highway police can’t be posted everywhere, and even if they witness dangerous weaving, chasing miscreants seasoned in making evasive moves in traffic sounds neither practical nor safe.

The DOT has yet to respond to the lawmakers’ appeal but is said to be working on one. Prepare to be disappointed; the agency doesn’t have much of a track record of reacting quickly or creatively to problems.

Newsday has reported that since 2016 state police have issued less than 100 tickets for reckless driving, a misdemeanor. Perhaps they should consider video taken by drones that could patrol the roads. Regardless, those who patrol the highways must be more aggressive in apprehending reckless drivers.

The death of Richard Riggs reminds us once again how dangerous driving on Long Island has become and how the efforts to combat it have failed to keep pace.