New York metro area prosecutors and pols huddled in Times Square on Wednesday in a push to beef up the Empire State’s drugged driving statute — bashing loopholes in the current law.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney hosted the first-ever Drugged Driving Symposium as officials called for state lawmakers to sign off on a bill languishing in committee that would add to the list of drugs that qualify for a DUI charge under state law.
“New York State is one of only four states that permits dangerously impaired people to drive illegally on New York State roadways because the substance they are using doesn’t happen to be on a public health law list,” Tierney said at the event at Touro College.
“This loophole allows drivers who are impaired by such substances as propofol, nitrous oxide, xylazine or other emerging synthetic drugs to operate vehicles and threaten the lives of everyday citizens with impunity — no matter how impaired they may be on those substances,” he added.
The state bill would amend Vehicle and Traffic Law to add similar drugs to the list that already includes alcohol, opioids and several powerful prescription drugs — but omits others that can have the same effects.
Among those affected by the legal loophole was the family of Michael McDermott, a 37-year-old who was struck and killed in 2019 by a drugged-up driver — who got off because he didn’t qualify for a DUI rap.
“I feel that the system and the state failed us,” his brother, Stephen, said Wednesday. “The individual had been arrested multiple times prior for drug use and driving while being drugged and nothing was done about it because the substances that he was on weren’t on the list.”
Hempstead resident Jawana Richardsoni said her husband, Sherman, was killed by a drugged driver on Dec. 5, 2014 while under the influence, who fled the scene.
She said that driver was ultimately arrested after torching the car — an all-too-rare outcome in the cases.
“I’m one of the few who got justice,” she said. “My case was an anomaly, because I got justice.”
But far too many don’t, organizers said.
“This is not a Long Island issue,” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, a symposium participant, told The Post. “It’s not an upstate issue. It’s not a city issue. This is a statewide issue.”
The prosecutor cited a case of a pedestrian killed by a drugged driver in Times Square.
“Whether it’s a drug that is on the list or not on the list, if it does what it did to that driver and it results in the way it did that day, the law should speak to that,” he said.
Among those on hand were state Assemblyman Steve Stern and state Sen. Chris Ryan.
CREDIT: NY Post Brandon Cruz and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
