‘Sticking victims with the bill’: Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets Call for City Council to Reject New TLC Insurance Legislation

TA supports Intro 193, which would require all TLC vehicles to have a sticker decal warning riders to look out for cyclists.

NEW YORK — Transportation Alternatives and Lauren Pine, a member of Families for Safe Streets, today submitted testimony before the City Council Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. TA is in support of legislation to require sticker decals on all TLC vehicles and in opposition to legislation that could reduce insurance coverage for TLC drivers. 

Read the full testimony from Ben Furnas below: 

Thank you to Chair Brooks-Powers and members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for holding today’s hearing. My name is Ben Furnas, and I am the Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives, an organization that fights for safe, liveable, and accessible streets across the five boroughs. 

We’re happy to be here today to testify in support of legislation we believe will lead to safer streets and against legislation that would overburden New Yorkers hit and injured in traffic crashes. Last year, traffic crashes killed 253 New Yorkers, and seriously injured 3,100 more. Our city’s leaders can and must do more to prevent these crashes before they happen, starting with better street design and safety infrastructure.  

We support Intro 193, which would require all TLC vehicles to have a sticker decal warning riders to look out for cyclists. Every year, cyclists are doored across the city, and it’s always good to remind everyone to look out for New Yorkers riding bikes. However, to provide an even safer bicycling experience, New York City must build a high-quality protected bicycle network so that New Yorkers of all ages and abilities feel comfortable hopping on a bike to get around. Only 2% of streets in the five boroughs have a protected bike lane – we need to grow that number if we want to protect New Yorkers on bikes from not only dooring, but all types of traffic crashes. 

We oppose Intro 1050, which would reduce the minimum ‘personal injury protection’ [PIP] insurance that yellow cab, livery, and app-based drivers are required to carry from $200,000 to $50,000. PIP insurance – also called ‘no fault’ insurance – is designed to cover medical costs and economic losses in the case of a crash, regardless of who is at fault. This means that when New Yorkers are hit and injured in a crash, PIP insurance should step in. This is particularly important in a city like New York, where most residents don’t own a car or car insurance, so they’re not otherwise covered. Costs that might have been previously covered by PIP insurance will fall onto personal health insurance – creating logistical and financial nightmares for New Yorkers already struggling with the aftermath of a traumatic traffic crash. 

While well-intentioned, this legislation will ultimately make it more expensive and difficult to access care, treatment, and support after a traffic crash. Ultimately, for-hire drivers spend more time on the road than other drivers and should be insured in a way that recognizes that. There is a very real physical, emotional, and financial toll of traffic violence — and the only path forward is to fundamentally change our streetscape, not sticking victims with the bill.

As the TLC Commissioner cited, reducing the limits will not reduce abuse and fraud. Doing so, as Insurance Insider reported, will mean that those committing the abuse and fraud will only cause more crashes in order to get the same amount of money. 

Thank you for the opportunity to share this testimony. Please reach out with any other questions. 

Read the full testimony from Lauren Pine below: 

Hello, my name is Lauren Pine and I am a member of Families for Safe Streets. I’m here to talk to you about my experience and oppose Intro 1050 because the minimum no fault insurance is not enough for victims of traffic violence.

On November 15, 2017, I was crossing with the light in the crosswalk when I was struck and dragged by a construction truck making a right turn.

I was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where I was put into a medically induced coma for four days. Doctors amputated my entire left leg, completely removing my femur. My broken pelvis healed crookedly, causing pain when sitting or when wearing a prosthesis, both due to near-fatal infection.

The skin on my remaining thigh was immediately ripped from the muscle, resulting in a severe trauma burn. I was in the Burn ICU at New York Presbyterian Hospital for two months. Donor skin from my entire back was peeled off and used as a skin graft to cover my leg, which is completely scarred. I have residual nerve damage and foot drop in my right leg, so I can only use that leg minimally, with a brace and crutches. On my left leg, I have a prosthetic leg that is very heavy and difficult to maneuver. After experiencing a few falls every week, I am now a daily Wheelchair user.  

The estimation of benefits billed by my insurance company to the no-fault provider of the private company was around $3 million. The minimum 50K no fault insurance was exhausted within the first week or so of my hospitalization. That doesn't even begin to speak to my aftercare.

I live alone, and suddenly found myself on disability, which is not a living wage. I have to rely on the charity of my community just to live day-to-day with expenses. My rent stabilized pre-war apartment building could not legally be modified for a wheelchair, so I had to move far from my community to a place I can afford where I rely on my friends to help me.

I am here to give a face to this epidemic and show you what life is like for the thousands of people seriously injured in traffic crashes each year. We are real, we’ve been hurt, and we don’t deserve to be financially devastated from a traffic crash.

If there is any silver lining to my story, it is that even if I cannot return to my former career as a nurse in a cancer center, I can use my voice and visible disability to volunteer and advocate for you and your loved ones. 

TLC crashes where pedestrians are killed or seriously injured demand maintaining the minimum coverage. I encourage you to oppose Intro 1050.

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