New York, NY – The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is re-launching Vision Zero “Warm
Weather Weekends” spring safety campaign.
“Springtime weather is no excuse for dangerous driving that puts New Yorkers at risk,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Warm Weather Weekends are targeted enforcement derived from our data-driven Vision Zero campaign that helped make 2018 the safest year ever on our streets. The NYPD will be out in force to make sure everyone is more mindful of road safety, so we can save lives across our city.”
This program was initiated by the events of April 29, 2017: In a year that was the overall safest-ever on New York City streets, that Saturday was the second deadliest day of the entire year. The first warm weekend day at the end of an unusually cool month, April 29th was sunny with a high temperature of 87 degrees. In a number of different serious crashes around New York City that day, many of which involved speeding, 4 New Yorkers lost their lives and 204 were injured.
“Through the Warm Weather Weekends campaign, we and our Vision Zero partners are taking preventive action after seeing far too many tragedies accompany the rise in temperatures, especially among drivers and motorcyclists,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.
The average number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) in traffic crashes on weekends starts to rise in March and peaks during June. In April, the weekend KSI rate is 28 percent higher than in January/February. This requires drivers to expect heightened enforcement on weekends.
