New York City’s 10 “Super Speeders” — drivers hit with the highest number of speeding tickets last year — racked up an average of 179 school-zone speed-camera infractions each, according to a new Transportation Alternatives Data analysis released Wednesday.
The infractions were scattered across such a wide swath of the city that 2.5 million New Yorkers live within five minutes of intersections through which the super speeders barreled, the nonprofit advocacy group charged.
“Together, their reign of terror touches almost every corner of the city. Some 2.5 million of us, including my family, live a stone’s throw from this threat,” said Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas of the 10 Super Speeders. “It’s like someone shooting a gun into a crowd.”
The worst Super Speeder of all
The group, along with its sister organization Families for Safe Streets, also found the worst offender of the bunch — the driver of a black 2023 Audi A6, who was caught speeding by school-zone cameras a staggering 259 times last year. It was not his first time on the super speeder list.
The driver, who has paid off nearly $64,000 in fines, was also found to be the top super speeder in 2024, and has gotten 1,000 speed camera tickets since purchasing their vehicle in 2023, the groups’ analysis found.
Like the Audi driver, the other super speeders seem undeterred by having to pay thousands of dollars in speed camera tickets, according to the groups’ findings.
Four of the other top speeders paid off either all or a majority of the fines they received over three years — those ranged from $10,200 to $20,300 each. The rest paid off few to none of their tickets and owe an average $19,400 each — totaling $97,000.
Additionally, cops hit just three of the top 10 worst offenders with moving violations related to speeding, the groups’ report found.
“These Super Speeders blast their cars and trucks through New York City’s neighborhood streets at deadly speeds every day, getting caught hundreds of times a year, undeterred,” Furnas added.
‘Super Speeders’ report highlights need for speed-limiting device law
They released the data on Wednesday as part of their push for state legislation that would install speed-limiting devices — also known as Intelligent Speed Assistance technology — in the cars of drivers who accumulate a certain number of speed-camera tickets in a year. Once installed, the devices prevent drivers from exceeding the speed limit by a few miles, thereby reducing the likelihood of deadly crashes.
Philip Miatkowski, Transportation Alternatives’ Senior Director of Research and Policy, said in a statement that data shows drivers who have accrued double-digit totals of speeding tickets are fr more likely to kill or injure another New Yorker.
“Some of these drivers have hundreds more than that — it’s just a matter of time before one of New York’s most reckless drivers kills someone,” Miatkowski said. “Albany has the power to stop this before it happens, but the legislature needs to include the Stop Super Speeders bill in the final state budget.”
The so-called “Stop Super Speeders Act” was originally introduced by state Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn) and passed Albany’s upper chamber last year, but stalled in the Assembly.
Gov. Kathy Hochul rolled out a similar measure in her Executive Budget proposal last month.
Gounardes’ bill would establish a statewide standard that any driver who racks up 16 or more speed camera tickets in a year, or at least 11 points on their license in an 18-month period, could have a speed-limiting device installed in their vehicle. Instead of launching a statewide program right away, Hochul’s legislation would allow cities to opt into piloting the installation of devices in the vehicles of serial speeders.
“We know that a disproportionate number of dangerous incidents on our roads are caused by a small group of bad actors who speed recklessly and endanger everyone’s safety,” Hochul said in a statement to amNewYork. “Now, we are taking these super speeders on and working with the City of New York to end their fast and furious driving on our roads once and for all.”
City Department of Transportation spokesperson Vincent Barone said the agency supports the use of speed-limiting devices.
