Earlier on Oct 23rd, Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation to increase road safety by extending existing red light camera programs across the State and establishing a new red light camera program in the Hudson Valley. This includes the largest expansion of the red light camera program in New York City’s history. On Oct 23rd’s action builds on Governor Hochul’s legacy of authorizing communities across the State to utilize camera technology to maintain traffic safety and protect New Yorkers. Governor Hochul also signed legislation that will protect children on school buses and other measures designed to keep students safe and hold reckless drivers accountable.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and available in TV quality (h.264. mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor’s Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

You've heard it before, but keeping New Yorkers safe is my top priority: Safe from harm, safe from crime, safe from injury. And that ironclad commitment also extends to traffic safety: Protecting people on the roadways and at busy intersections. So today, we're slamming the brakes on dangerous drivers and preventable crashes, and in a few moments, I’ll sign 11 new bills to protect New Yorkers on the road, including the largest ever expansion of New York City's Red Light Camera Program.

These laws will make the streets safer for everyone: Our drivers, our pedestrians, our cyclists, and especially our children. And I want to thank my partners in the Legislature and all the advocates — our transit advocates, our street safety advocates — I thank all of you for bringing your voices to our State Capitol, and you were heard.

And to all those elected officials — I know many were acknowledged already, but we have a number of our sponsors here and I want to acknowledge the sponsors of the bills here. Assemblymember Rozic, we have Senator Liu, we have Senator Gounardes and Senator Dinowitz, who are all sponsors, and Senator Bailey as well. As well as many who've joined us who are co-sponsors of these bills. It's important to give them the credit they deserve for this effort, which one would think would be not a complicated one. It should be fairly easy, but we're finding nothing ever is. And this was truly worthy of the effort and I want to thank everyone again who is involved. And also, we'll be hearing from Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard who will be giving the perspective of one of our localities outside the City that are benefiting from these changes as well.

Now, you've also heard me say this before: I'm a mom. And I know innately that stress when your child walks to kindergarten. Mine did. They go out the door, they're all of a sudden out of your care zone where you have that protective shield around them from the moment they first open their eyes, and there's a lot of stress that comes from sending your kids out to school every morning. And you're also thinking about, “Do they have everything they need? Did they forget their lunch? Did they have their books? Did they do their homework? Do they have a warm enough coat?” Those are the standard concerns of every parent. But no parent should have that gnawing pit in their stomach when they wave goodbye each morning because they're worried about their child crossing a street or getting on a school bus.

And lawmakers, my partners here and advocates, have all fought for more red light cameras for one simple reason. One real simple reason: They work. They actually make a difference. Three decades of data. Three decades, back to 1994, showed that they reduce crashes and they changed driver behavior, which is what we're looking for.

Since New York City announced this groundbreaking, nation-leading program in 1994, red light running at intersections with cameras has dropped 73 percent. I don't know what more you need than that data point. The T-bone crashes at intersections with cameras dropped 65 percent.

When there's a camera, drivers know about it, they're less likely to dart through, try to get through a red light, and that means they're less likely to hurt or kill someone in a vehicle or on the street.

On the other hand, we know that the intersections that do not have red light cameras are, very simply, more dangerous. And last year in New York City alone, red light runners killed 29 of our friends, neighbors, and family members. All 29 incidents occurred at intersections without red light cameras.

So, behind every statistic is a life. Now, there's an empty seat at a dinner table, an unfilled seat from a classmate in school, a mom who never sees the joy of seeing their kids graduate and sometimes losing a grandma who will not be there for her next birthday. What's so heartbreaking about all of these is they are all preventable — that's what we've established — and red light cameras are one of the best tools for prevention.

So today, we're giving New York City the green light to quadruple the number of red light cameras docked at intersections around the City. We're letting them do it. The largest expansion — what do I mean by the largest expansion? — going from 150 to 600. That is transformational. Think about it, that's 450 more intersections where drivers are less likely to run a red light, less likely to hit a pedestrian, run into another car; safer commutes for our kids.

Now, in the decades since this effort was launched, again, right here in New York City, localities around the country and other parts of our state have followed the lead, but they also need approvals from the state. Now, I will digress. As a former local official, I never knew why we had to ask the state for something as simple as a red light camera. I was on our traffic safety board. I had a lot of requests from people and I was always petitioning, at the time it was the Pataki administration. And if I didn't get the answers I wanted, I rolled up to Albany with lots of petitions. Not wanting to give anybody any new ideas, but that was me out there championing for traffic signals, widening of the roads, putting in medians in the middle of roads where we had head-on collisions that killed three teenagers my first few weeks on the job. So I have been a traffic safety champion, understanding the power of the placement of a signal — restrictions on roads, as well as red light cameras.

And so, today we're also signing bills to help some of our mayors. New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, Albany, red light cameras there as well. And in Westchester County, we're giving the town of Greenberg the okay to have red light cameras at two busy intersections as well and green lighting a new school zone program in Kingston.

So all these are and someday we'll get to a time when the State Legislature focuses on other issues beyond this because I love the fact that localities have the power to make these decisions or they should have those decisions. But this is consistent with our governing philosophy that we will empower them to make these decisions. They can make that decision.

I encourage everyone from the advocates to the parents and other affected individuals to stay engaged and work with them to get this through. So, you don't need us to tell you where your challenges are but, next year I'm happy to sign even more if you want to come back to us and get more permission.

I've got a lot of pens. I've got plenty of time and I'm happy to do this because I understand the power of this pen. The power of this pen to effectuate the change that so many have been waiting far too long for. You know, and this is the same principle behind Sammy's Law, which I signed last spring. We had an enormous rally.

There was so much energy and excitement around this, and it gave New York City the power to reduce speed limits from 25 to 20 in residential areas and go even slower in certain zones. Now, in one individual — in the power of one — Amy Cohen was the driving force behind this. Her son, Sammy, was killed by a speeding driver, and she put all that grief and energy into a bill named after him, and she fought for over a decade.

My view is these fights should not have to go on so long. We need to be there for citizens who've suffered pain, who harness that pain and turn into positive energy for others. And let's just make that road a little easier and smoother. So people like that never gave up. These are the people I listened to.

Come see me, talk to me, as well as so many other advocates whose voices are so important to all of us. So we're not wasting any more time. That's my point. We're not wasting any more time. We're getting these signs, we're giving the City the power they need, we're giving our localities the power they need, and making sure we do what's right.

So, we also have another challenge with school buses, right? Did you ever see someone pass a school bus? The school bus has stopped, children are getting on or off; the lights are flashing. I mean, all the warning signs are there. You know what you're supposed to do, but somehow you think that your life is more important. You have to get to work. Maybe you should have gotten up a little bit earlier. You're putting other people's lives in danger, right? You're putting other people's lives in danger. And at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we empower the cities to do what they need to do.

So I'm going to sign a bill which also says that we're going to talk about the school buses and increase the fines. Right now it's $1,000, that's a lot of money. One thousand dollars is a lot of money — for a fine. But apparently it's not working, because people are still violating the law, putting our kids' lives in jeopardy. So let's try raising the fine. Let's raise that fine to $1,500 and see if that has an impact. And let's get that message out there. Let's get that message out there. So if you're going to selflessly endanger the lives of someone else's kids, you will pay the price.

And again, I want to just conclude by saying today is not a one-off. It's part of a larger vision for an overall safer New York. By quadrupling the number of red light cameras in New York City and empowering other localities, raising the penalties for school buses, we're building on other major traffic safety initiatives, working closely with our local mayors, the Mayor of the City of New York and his team. And focusing on the stricter rules regarding e-bikes, cracking down on illegal ghost car vehicles, those who are violating our laws — and again, giving people the power they need to protect their communities.

It's a good day. It's a good day. When you think about all the things we do, this may not seem like the most consequential, but if one life is saved, that one life is consequential. I'm telling you right now. And that's what today is all about. So again, I want to thank Mayor Roach. Tom Roach here has joined us from White Plains as well.

All of our elected officials who are part of this journey, our common goal to ensure that people know we put their lives first. We'll always put their lives first. We'll do whatever we can to protect them, and their most cherished possessions indeed, their children.

So with that, I'd like to welcome up Jeffrey Dinowitz, one of our great champions, one of our sponsors of legislation. Again, congratulations to all of our other sponsors. And again, my appreciation to our leaders. Carl Heastie of the New York State Assembly, and Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Majority Leader of the New York State Senate. They're great partners and I appreciate all their members and their leadership.