Local city offering discounted driving safety course to reduce car crashes

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) - Local leaders in Schenectady are incentivizing safe and slower driving to combat the reported high number of accidents in the city year after year. Beginning in March, of this year the city will be lowering its speed limit from 30 MPH to 25 MPH, as well as partnering with AAA to offer a 6-hour discounted driving safety course for those who live in the city.

According to Schenectady Police Chief Eric Clifford, every year the city reports a very high number of car crashes, which he says they just cannot keep down.

"Last year the city of Schenectady Police Department responded to 2,335 automobile crashes, despite issuing over 6,400 citations," Clifford said. "119 of those crashes involved pedestrians."

According to Eric Stigberg with AAA, the course will be taught by AAA-certified instructors, all of whom are retired law enforcement. Stigberg said it is a benefit to all drivers.

“Students will learn techniques for avoiding collisions, better managing speed, which is why we are here today and also reducing risky behavior such as distracted driving,” Stigberg said.

George Burns, the Assistant Fire Chief, believes reducing the speed limit and offering the course will be the answer to lowering the number of accidents, and there is evidence to prove it.

“In Edmonton, Canada, they did a similar reduction in speed by about 6 miles per hour; they saw 31% reduction in fatalities and injuries and a 25% drop in total crashes," Burns said.

This partnership comes on the heels of an accident involving a 66-year-old Schenectady man who was hit by a car while in a wheelchair crossing Crosstown Connection Monday night.

"He was coming back home which he lives over near Home Depot, he was coming back from across the street at the shopping plaza and unfortunately that section is where this incident occurred and is one of the streets that will still have a speed limit that's different than 25," Clifford said. "It's a Troy, Schenectady road, which is a very busy street.”

Chief Clifford said it's his initial inquiry that the driver will not be cited, but he says this situation shows that reducing the speed limit is necessary, even if it has to be incentivized.