QUEENS, NEW YORK: In recent months, the city council’s transportation president has been speed-timed up to three times despite her pledge to “do better.” Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers (D-Queens) vowed to make sure she followed the rules in April after a local news site discovered her with 17 speeding tickets in just 11 months. After being called out for speeding, Brooks-Powers 39 reportedly replied, “I absolutely swear to do better.”
Selvena Brooks
However, despite her wish, she was recorded on city cameras exceeding the legal speed limit on April 24, June 23 and July 22. Streetsblog revealed that two of the councilwoman’s speeding fines were issued on days she was touring the city and chatting in public transit with her colleagues. Almost all of the traffic offenses in which Brooks-Powers has been involved have occurred in Queens, where up to 27 people have died in auto wrecks as of July 31 this year.
Brooks-Powers’ driving record qualifies it for the “Unsafe Vehicle Reduction Program.” Under this initiative, the city can confiscate automobiles with 15 or more speed camera penalties over a 12-month period, until the registered owner completes a road safety course. However, it is not known if she was enrolled in the program.
Several lawmakers in the United States have been implicated in driving offenses lately. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s motorcade was pulled over for repeated speeding and traffic charges, but none of the fines, totaling $658, were paid. The congressman called for tougher fines for drivers caught speeding. Since February 2020, Lightfoot SUVs have been involved in at least eight incidents. Footage collected and discovered by CWB Chicago shows several events involving its cars. A video shows two Ford Expedition SUVs driving past a set of red lights. Traffic cameras flash in their wake. Another video shows a black Chevy SUV turning left at a red signal at a major intersection. It’s unclear if Lightfoot was in the SUVs at the time of the crashes, and she apparently wouldn’t have been driving even if she had been.
New Jersey councilwoman Amy DeGise was recently recorded on CCTV tape hitting a bicycle at a Jersey City intersection with her SUV and then driving away without stopping. Amy DeGise is asked to resign after meeting Andrew Black, 29, a cyclist, on July 19 at around 8am. The event took place at the intersection of Martin Luther King Drive and Forrest Street.
Meanwhile, the father of a five-year-old has said he’s worried Wisconsin Democratic leader Janet Bewley won’t be punished despite her involvement in a car crash that killed his daughter and wife . Marine Brandon Fink blamed Bewley for not contacting him after the tragic accident. Bewley, 70, had undergone cataract surgery the day before the catastrophic crash that killed Fink’s wife Alyssa Ortman, 27, and daughter Khali, five.
