TEAM DE BLASIO LEFT CONTINUAL TRAFFIC VIOLATOR CRUISING WITHOUT A CARE IN THE WORLD

City Hall’s failure left the deadly ‘speed demon’ on the road 

 

Post Editorial Board

 

New York Post

September 13, 2021

 

 

After the fatal crash, Tyrik Mott allegedly took off on foot and tried to steal a car

 

If anyone needed to lose his car, it was Tyrik Mott — before the hit-and-run crash that killed a 3-month-old girl in Brooklyn. The car Mott was driving — with Pennsylvania plates — has racked up 160 traffic violations.

Mott allegedly ran a red light before crashing his gray Honda into a black one, killing the baby being pushed in a stroller by her mother on the sidewalk. The collision also injured the mom and another pedestrian. After the crash, police say, he took off on foot and tried to steal a car. 

Yet this speed demon had amassed a history of traffic offenses that included running red lights 14 times since 2017, including five times this year. Cameras caught the car speeding in school zones 35 times in 2021 alone, including seven since the start of summer.

So why was he still on the road? A city law that took effect this year could’ve taken the car away (and any vehicle with five red-light-camera or 15 speed-camera violations) — except that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s team never set up the safe-driving classes that this law also requires. On Monday, he said those classes “are beginning now.” Ha!

He also tried to blame Albany instead, insisting the Crash Victims Rights and Safety Act would’ve stopped Mott. Yet it does nothing to increase penalties for reckless drivers, other than label them “dangerous.” (It also allows more speed cams in the city and adds pedestrian and bicycle safety to the DMV’s pre-licensing course.) Then again, the state Assembly has proven allergic to passing laws that toughen criminal penalties for bad drivers or just about any threats to public safety.

Anyway, tough laws mean nothing if they’re not enforced.

It’s an old, sorry story: City Hall knows who the chronically bad drivers are, but even when given the tools to do something about them, it still gets nothing done. Nor do most judges take dangerous driving seriously.

After getting pinched by the NYPD, Mott allegedly asked cops “if he could just get a ticket.” No: He’s being held on $100,000 bail, though his defense attorney is crying foul.

Mott can expect a deserved one-way ticket to state prison. But no one will pay for the Team de Blasio failures that left him cruising without a care in the world.