Cuomo Proposes Upping Fines For Bridge Strikes

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today that part of his proposed 2021 Executive Budget includes new measures to help prevent bridge strikes — an all-too-common problem on Long Island. The new measures would make the owners and operators of the vehicles face significant fines and possibly the suspension of vehicle registration.

There are approximately 150 vehicle bridge hits every year across New York State according to the State Department of Transportation. According to Cuomo, bridge strikes cost the state about $30 million per year.

"Bridge strikes at best create unacceptable and costly traffic problems with real economic consequences and at worst are a public safety hazard that put the lives of motorists and passengers alike at risk," Cuomo said. "With these new tougher penalties, we are continuing our aggressive action to reduce the frequency of these crashes and improve the safety and reliability of our roadways."

The proposal would be a steep increase in the fines for overheight vehicles. The current penalties are a fine of $200 to $500 and/or 30 days in jail for a first offense, and a fine of $500 to $1,000 and/or 60 days in jail for subsequent offenses. Though the jail penalty would remain the same, Cuomo's proposal would increase the fines to $5,000 for a first offense and $7,500 for subsequent offenses.

Bridge strikes are a common problem on Long Island, where many of the overpasses on the parkways were built lower than in other places. April 2019 had more than a dozen instances of tractor trailers on Nassau Roads, many of which ended in bridge strikes, as Patch investigated at the time.

In addition to fines, Cuomo has taken other steps to try to mitigate bridge strikes. Previous budgets included millions of dollars to install 16 overheight detectors at the entrances of Long Island parkways. The detectors activate if a vehicle over a certain height drives by them. That, in turn, turns on a light-up sign alerting the driver to the low clearance of the road. When the sensor are tripped, it also turns on a camera to start recording the truck and alerts law enforcement.