Hey, drunken drivers: Four strikes and you’re out!
People who rack up at least three alcohol- or drug-related driving convictions — plus one other serious driving offense — over a 25-year period will permanently lose their driver’s licenses, Gov. Cuomo (right) said yesterday.
The permanent ban would also apply to anyone with five drug-related or drunken-driving convictions in their lifetime.
“We are saying ‘enough is enough’ to those who have chronically abused their driving privileges and threatened the safety of other drivers, passengers and pedestrians,” Cuomo said.
The Department of Motor Vehicles announced the emergency regulations allowing it to permanently deny license reinstatement to chronic offenders — and to keep other repeat offenders off the road longer than they have to wait now.
The new regs will keep 20,000 dangerous drivers off the roads this year, officials said.
Until now, repeat offenders could not have their licenses taken away permanently unless they’d caused at least two crashes resulting in physical injuries.
Cuomo’s office said the rate of alcohol-related injurious crashes caused by drivers with at least three DWI convictions jumped from 22 percent in 2005 to 28 percent two years ago.
More than 50,000 New York drivers with valid or suspended licenses have had three or more alcohol-related convictions in their lifetimes, with 15,000 having at least three in the last 20 years, state statistics show.
And about 17,500 licensed drivers caused more than 22,000 crashes that killed more than 500 people after racking up at least three alcohol-related convictions, the DMV said.