With the end of daylight saving time around the corner, third annual Dusk and Darkness campaign focuses on fall and winter evening hours when pedestrian crashes have historically increased; New “Alive at 25”campaign reaches out to younger drivers who are in a disproportionate number of crashes
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that as part of the Vision Zero initiative, the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), NYPD and TLC would begin their third annual Dusk and Darkness campaign. During a Citywide “Day of Awareness” today, City officials are reminding drivers that historically, after daylight saving time ends, crashes involving pedestrians dramatically increase, especially during evening hours. As part of an event in Times Square today, officials also introduced “Alive at 25,” a new program directed at younger drivers who were behind the wheel in 20 percent of fatal crashes last year. The NYPD also announced progress in its crackdown this week on private garbage hauling trucks, which have been disproportionately involved in fatal crashes during overnight hours.
“We are relentlessly pursuing Vision Zero and working to save lives every single day,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Our Dusk and Darkness campaigns help us further that goal, especially as nighttime hours – and dangerous driving – increase. At the same time, educating our young drivers will help curb dangerous driving habits before they take hold, making the road safer for everyone.”
Today’s Vision Zero announcement included the following elements:
“Alive at 25”: Safety program for younger drivers
Officials today announced a new program started to engage younger drivers -- between the ages of 18 and 25. In 2017, those drivers were behind the wheel in 20 percent of all New York City fatal crashes (a total of 44 crashes) despite making up less than 10 percent of the driving population. Alive at 25 is a four-session program, funded by the National Safety Council, offered to high school seniors. This fall, DOT safety educators began teaching the program to 2,500 students at ten public high schools around New York City, including the entire senior class of 700 students at New Dorp High School on Staten Island.
The Alive at 25 curriculum is based on choice theory, putting students through real-life scenarios for situations both behind the wheel and as passengers in cars. Students have already reported learning a lot about how to safely operate a vehicle -- and to make good choices while riding along with other teens.
Dusk and Darkness 3.0
The officials cited the encouraging fatality statistics from the Dusk and Darkness campaign the previous two years. In the five years before the campaign began, New York City averaged 63.4 traffic fatalities in the period between November 1 and March 15th—many of them in the evening hours. In the first year of Dusk and Darkness, the overall fatality number declined to 51; in the second year, fatalities declined further to 44. (see chart below)
· Increased Evening/ Nighttime Enforcement: As it has the last two years, NYPD will this week begin focusing enforcement resources on the most hazardous violations (speeding and failure-to-yield to pedestrians), with precincts increasing their on-street presence around sunset hours when data show serious pedestrian crashes increase. NYPD will also focus resources on drunk-driving efforts, as the evening and nighttime hours in the fall and winter have historically been when the incidence of DWI also increases.
· “Day of Awareness”: NYPD and DOT street teams will today be educating and engaging drivers and other New Yorkers at different Vision Zero priority areas during the morning and evening rush hours in all five boroughs, including at: Times Square North; the Canal Street entrance to the Manhattan Bridge; Penn Station; Grand Central Station; 168th and Broadway and 181st and Broadway in Washington Heights; the Fordham MetroNorth Station and the Hub in the Bronx; the Queens entrance to the Queensboro Bridge; the LIRR Station in Jamaica, Queens; Woodhaven Blvd and Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven, Queens; Whitehall Terminal; St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island; Brooklyn Borough Hall; Barclays Center and at Flatbush Junction in Brooklyn.
· Daylight Saving Awareness: DOT statistics from 2010-2014 show that serious collisions increase by approximately 40 percent in darker early evenings. This year, Daylight Savings Time will end at 2:00 AM on Sunday, November 4 when clocks “fall back.” DOT will run radio ads during the evening commute, alerting drivers to the dangers of lower visibility and encouraging them to follow the 25 MPH Citywide speed limit and to yield to pedestrians. Ads are running through November 21st on twelve stations in the Total Traffic Network.
Private Garbage Hauler Crackdown
New York City’s private garbage hauling industry largely operates during overnight hours that are a focus of the Dusk and Darkness campaign. This week, the NYPD, working with Business Integrity Commission (BIC), began a major enforcement effort against an industry that according to City data has been involved in 26 fatalities since 2014, including four so far this year. In the first three nights of the initiative that began Sunday evening, NYPD has inspected 128 garbage hauling trucks, issued 163 moving summonses and 458 criminal summonses. NYPD has also towed five garbage trucks that were deemed not road-safe.
“To make all New Yorkers safer, it is imperative that we raise awareness about the dangers of reduced daylight and the onset of cold weather,” said Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill. “For the third year in a row, our Dusk and Darkness safety campaign will be a crucial part of that. The NYPD will conduct precisely-focused enforcement in areas that have experienced fatalities, and ensure that everyone adheres to traffic rules. As we move forward, together, we will build on our previous successes and further reduce traffic-related deaths.”
“Under Vision Zero, we have gone to work where the crash data take us -- and with Dusk and Darkness, we have focused on times of the year and times of the day that were simply more dangerous to pedestrians,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “This year, we will fine-tune that effort, as we target newer drivers who may be taking dangerous chances on our roadways. Dusk and Darkness has already proven that education can teach useful lessons -- and far better those lessons not come the hard way.”
“There is no greater concern than our students’ safety, including when they are behind the wheel of a car,” said Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza. “’Alive at 25’ is a critical effort to keep our students and community members safe, and I thank DOT and NYPD for supporting this effort.”
“With more than 130,000 taxis and for-hire vehicles on the road, making sure that every single one of our licensees fully understands the monumental importance of safety and good judgment in their work is a central part of our mission,” said Taxi & Limousine Commission Chair Meera Joshi. “Between the hundreds of Vision Zero meetings with drivers we’ve held and the other ways we get the word out, it has been truly gratifying to see our licensees embrace their safe driving responsibilities. When daylight saving time ends, however, we face the most challenging safety conditions of the season and spreading the safety message becomes all the more urgent.”
About Vision Zero
Vision Zero is the de Blasio administration’s initiative to use every tool at its disposal to reduce traffic deaths and injuries on New York City streets. In 2017, New York City experienced its safest year on record with the fourth straight year of fatality declines. Since the program’s inaugural year in 2014, when New York City became the first American city to adopt Vision Zero, the city’s traffic fatalities have declined 26 percent with a 42 percent decline in pedestrian fatalities — bucking national fatality trends, which have increased 13 percent over the same period.
