u/SteveVaccaroLaw

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Please come to the Vaccaro Law + Veselka Restaurant Spring Social in the East Village this Thursday, 5/14, where you’ll hear a panel discussion on “Cycling in Mamdani’s New York” with Lucia Deng, Daniel Perez, Vince Rhino, Shabazz Stuart, and me! 

Our new Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has fulfilled some of our wildest dreams with cyclist-friendly street and policy changes that promise to transform our public space. Mamdani didn’t run on a "bike platform," but was elected with the endorsement and support of StreetsPAC, the cyclists and safe-streets political action committee we formed in 2013.  Turns out, Mayor Mamdani is a decade-old commuter cyclist who has fast-tracked many bike-friendly changes in his first 100 days, including:

 fixing the dangerous and unpleasant Manhattan ramp to the Williamsburg Bridge that stood for over a decade as a symbol of the City's disregard for cyclists;

calling off the heavy-handed Adams-Tisch policy of criminalizing biking tickets, an unfair policy that threatened cyclists with dire consequences for traffic violations not faced by drivers, and necessitated a major pro-bono effort to help cyclists sent to criminal court for traffic violations; and

implementing Sammy's Law to create 15 MPH speed zones around all our schools to be enforced with cameras and speed governor devices (fingers crossed) under the Stop Super-Speeders Act.

At the same time, there are some reasons for cyclists to be critical of the Mamdani administration, that will merit discussion this Thursday:

his administration apparently still supports a 15 MPH speed limit on non-motorized, pedal cyclists and perhaps citywide, even though our road cycling and and racing communities won a temporary restraining order against that measure;

while the Mayor lifted the criminal court diversion program against cyclists, we've not yet seen follow-through on his accompanying and welcome commitment to regulate delivery cyclists in a non-punitive way that's fair and ensures the safety of all;  

the administration dropped the ball on secure bike parking with a surprise and opaque decision to reject the most experienced vendor favored by the biking community, Oonee.

Join us and the discussion this Thursday!

My public and private sources tell me the Super Speeder bill has won support from the Governor's office and legislature sufficient to win enactment substantially as proposed as part of the 2026 budget. While the devil will be in the details of the final bill as enacted, the hope is we will have speed governor devices mandatorily installed in vehicles caught speeding by camera-based enforcement systems if the vehicle was caught 16 or more times in a year, or if the owner was caught by in-person enforcement sufficient to put 11 points on their license.

The quid pro quos of this deal are in some cases unfortunate. The amnews report states that undet the compromise deal, a crash victim must prove the other person involved in a collision was 51% responsible to recover any fault-based compensation at all.

Picture a vulnerable road user like a pedestrian who enters a crosswalk admittedly without looking and is hit by a driver who isn't looking either; a jury verdict that the driver and pedestrian are each 50% responsible would mean the pedestrian hets nother and the druver wins 100%. While no-fault compensation would still be available, without the prospect of fault based compensation, there is as a practical matter no legal representation for the victim against the no-fault insurers, who routinely bully and cheat unrepresented crash victims out of the medical care they need.

Again, the exact terms of the deal will not be known until it is enacted as part of the budget, under NY's famously--and shamelessly--opaque lawmaking process and tradition. We'll have to keep our eye on this one.

But we should take a moment to celebrate the victims and advocates who have tirelessly and at great sacrifice brought the super speeder bill to the threshold of victory! It is much needed reform that will finally force habitually unsafe drivers to follow the law.

We just filed our complaint against the driver who killed longtime cyclist Geoffrey Radbill in Washington Heights in December. (Daily News' circumlocution-- Geoff "died after car hit his bike"--is just so predicatble). Varona is one of the thousands of drivers who commits speeding violations at a rate of 16 or more per year, who under pending “Super Speeder” legislation in Albany would have mechanical speed governors installed on their cars to force them to keep within the limit. Geoff Radbill's tragic and unnecessary death is one more reason why we should enact that legislation.

Shockingly, Varona was caught speeding just a few hours after he killed Geoff. When police came to the scene, Varona told an absurd story in hopes of escaping consequences: Varona claimed to police that as he (Varona) was pulling out of a parking spot, Radbill bicycled past him in the traffic lane at such speed that it “spooked” Varona, caused Varona to commit "pedal error," hit the gas, lurch out of his parking space, and fatally strike Radbill.  Just about the most outlandish story I’ve ever heard a driver tell, and I’ve heard a lot of them. Yet the police let Varona drive off, and he was caught speeding again later that day. More than ten miles per hour over the speed limit. In a school zone.

The civil complaint against Varona is attached to this post. If you can make it to the end the complaint, you’ll see a novel cause of action for nuisance. We allege that Varona use of his vehicle to habitually speed, block crosswalks and bike lanes, constitutes a public nuisance. If this cause of action is sustained by the court, it will open up a new accountability for super-speeders like Varona. We'll take their cars and licenses away. Without relying on police, the District Attorney, or legislators or others.

Let's see if it works!

Great report on this important story told by Emma Thebault, struck by habitual reckless driver Inson Wood. (Disclosure: my law firm, Vaccaro Law, represents Emma and her minor children in a suit against the driver, Inson Wood). NYT story linked here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/nyregion/nyc-speed-limiters-cars-frequent-speeders.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

We need to focus on stories like Emma's which are all too common, as we approach a critical vote in Albany for a "Super Speeder" law that would put automated mechanical speed governors on the cars driven by people like Wood (Wood would get a speed governor under the law, because he exceeds 11 MPH over the speed limit in school zones in NYC more than 16 times a year.)

The Times story only scratches the surface of this horrible and ironic incidence of reckless driving and super-speeding, but for a deeper dive check out the civil lawsuit for compensatory and punitive damages we filed against Wood, linked here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/j01y16gte2psabipyk8kh/Thebault-Filed-Summons-and-Complaint.pdf?rlkey=6t35bs3b7ivr0ln0liq2rwdyh&st=ru40o886&dl=0

Also check out this earlier report from Streetsblog's Sophia Lebowitz, which includes links to video of rhe crash (if you can stomach it), posted to this subreddit reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/s/WElNMQtFy4

Some key takeaways:

- Emma's story represents the fourth time in three years Wood has crashed his car into other people or their property (4th time *resulting in a police report*; there may be other unreported incidents that we learn of in litigation).

-Wood is not just a super-speeder but apparently also super-rich, using his cash to operate as if he is a law unto himself: racking up hundreds of tickets, then paying them off ~$20,000 at a go, and then just continuing on, speed, crash, lather, rinse, repeat;

-Wood's driving record proves that his likelihood of killing or severely injuring someone behind the wheel is *two orders of magnitude* greater than the likelihood of an average NYC driver doing so.

-Truth is stranger than fiction: Wood is a noted bike racer, philanthropist to bike community charities, and the alleged co-founder of fabled bike racing team Foundation Racing. Go figure! (We hear Foundation asked Wood to leave the team when Emma's story broke, but this rumor is unconfirmed).

Check out Wood's driving record on "How's My Driving" (howsmydriving [dot] com), using his plate # from the linked complaint, and share in the comments whether you think Wood has chilled out on his reckless driving sufficiently since October 18 when he hit Emma that he should be spared a speed governor in his car!