Going nowhere fast

Heastie’s car flies as speed bill stalls

ALBANY — Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) might have a dozen reasons to oppose legislation to allow New York City to set lower speed limits.

A state vehicle assigned to the Albany power broker was caught speeding through a Bronx school zone as recently as April 30, according to NYC OpenData.

The “NYA 1” license plate is tied to 11 other speed violations — four of them last year — as well as a failure to stop at a red light going back to 2017.

Revelations about his growing traffic rap sheet come in the final week of the 2023 legislative session. Heastie has not called a floor vote on “Sammy’s Law,” which would allow New York City to set a 20-mph speed limit on some streets.

Advocates say the law is critical for saving lives considering the significantly higher fatality rates associated with going even 5 miles above that prospective limit.

“We are demanding that the Assembly bring the bill to a vote,” Amy Cohen, whose 12-year-old son, Sammy Cohen Eckstein, was killed in a 2013 traffic crash, told The Post on June 2. “It’s outrageous.”

The proposal has stalled in the Assembly despite passing in the state

Senate this week.

Some Assembly

Democrats

— particularly those from the outer borough s — have raised concerns about passing the law amid ongoing blowback to traffic safety initiatives from their constituents, as well as outrage over impending congestion pricing in Manhattan below 60 th Street, sources told The Post. Transportation Chair Bill Magnarelli (D-Syracuse) claimed the bill might have had better chances had the New York City Council delivered a formal request for it earlier in the year — a charge that a council spokesperson vehemently disputed considering the flurry of last-minute bills passing the chamber.

Way of political life

Speeding appears to be a way of life for the lower chamber. City records show at least 125 traffic violations, overwhelmingly for speeding, by vehicles with Assembly-affiliated license plates.

Exactly who was assigned those vehicles remained unclear, as are photographs from speed cameras.

Heastie threw unidentified staffers under the bus in 2019 when Streetsblog raised questions about seven tickets going back to 2016.

“While the speaker was not the driver of this vehicle, he is very disappointed and has spoken to the staff members who were operating the vehicle,” Heastie spokesman Mike Whyland said at the time. “He reminded them that the reason we passed the speed-camera legislation was to ensure the safety of students and the public, and that these violations are unacceptable.”

Whyland did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.