BREAKING NEWS:- Legislators wants to impose seat Belt Law for Taxi riders under Vision Zero plan

Buckle up in that taxi — or get slapped with a ticket.

 

Front-seat passengers in cabs and livery cars would be required to wear seat belts under a Vision Zero proposal being drafted by the de Blasio administration, officials said. So would children under 16, regardless of where they are sitting in the hired vehicle, officials said.

State law exempts passengers in the front seat, and children younger than 16, from mandatory seat belt use when traveling in a taxi, livery car or other for-hire vehicle. The new legislation would close that little-known loophole, officials said.

“Seat belts save lives and ... this is a common sense approach to expanding their use,” Taxi and Limousine Commission chairwoman Meera Joshi said. “We’ve had a lot of success using high-tech to solve customer-service and safety challenges, but sometimes, going ‘back to the future’ to a lower-tech solution like seat belts is the answer you need.”

If enacted, the parent or guardian riding with an unbuckled youngster could be charged with a violation, mayoral spokesman Wiley Norvell said. The minimum fine would be $25. The maximum would be $100.

 

Cabbies would not be ticketed if passengers don’t comply with the law, Norvell said.

The city Law Department will draft state legislation and the administration will seek a sponsor to introduce it in the Legislature in Albany, Norvell said.

Legislators, when creating the exemption in traffic law decades ago, apparently decided to treat cabs as mass transit on which riders don’t even have seat belts, officials said.

Independent of the Vision Zero effort, state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) introduced his own bill Monday that would require all passengers in cabs wear seat belts in taxicabs, Peter Ajemian, Hoylman’s chief of staff said Monday night.

Studies have proven that wearing seat belts reduces the risk of serious injury and death in traffic collisions, officials said.

Similarly, regulations and enforcement lead to increased seat belt use by drivers and passengers, officials said.

Some New Yorkers, however, are doubtful.

Reducing traffic injuries and fatalities is a “noble cause,” said Teresa Alburn, who ducked out of the rain and into a coffee shop in Manhattan Monday morning with her 3-year-old daughter, Liv.

Still, Alburn wondered how much time and effort the police would put into enforcement.

“Maybe just getting it into the minds of people is enough,” she said. “I always buckle her up anyway. Cabs are not exempt from danger.”

Christina Rousseau, of upstate Hopewell Junction, also praised the city’s motivation as “commendable.” But she also wondered whether more cab riders would wear seat belts.

“I’m not so sure a law would help,” she said.

Approximately 50% of taxicab riders of all ages don’t wear seat belts, according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Vision Zero is the administration’s program to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries through a wide array of measures that has included street redesigns, lower speed limits and increased use of enforcement cameras.