This NYC pol favors school-zone speed cameras — and got caught by them 8 times!
He’s a high-speed hypocrite!
City Councilman Brad Lander — who’s crusaded against reckless drivers and pushed a law that lets the city seize their cars — has been caught speeding in school zones around the Big Apple eight times in the past five years, The Post has learned.
Lander’s lead foot led to tickets against him for going more than 10 mph over the speed limit in every borough except Staten Island since June 2016, city records show.
The liberal Democrat — who’s now a candidate for city comptroller — even racked up two violations in one week last month, one in Manhattan and another just blocks from his home in Brooklyn’s Park Slope.
In each case, Lander pleaded guilty and paid a $50 fine, according to information posted on the NYC Open Data website. But because the tickets were issued after Lander zoomed past automatic speed cameras, he wasn’t assessed any points against his license.
Under state law, speeding more than 10 mph over the limit carries at least four points per violation and drivers can have their licenses suspended if they rack up a total of 11 points in 18 months.
Lander was ticketed seven times between Oct. 25, 2019, and March 25, 2021, which is a period of less than 18 months, and would have resulted in at least 28 points if he’d been stopped by cops and convicted each time.
Lander has amassed a total of 118 vehicle and traffic violations since 2013, according to city records.
And in a stunning display of “do as I say, not as I do,” Lander has repeatedly advocated for speed cameras in school zones, including by intentionally getting himself arrested in June 2018.
At the time, he was staging a protest outside the office of then-state Sen. Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn) to demand that the state Senate renew and expand the speed camera program before it was set to expire the following month.
In a press release touting his arrest, Lander cited Golden’s record of amassing 10 school-zone speeding tickets in three years and having struck a 74-year-old woman crossing against the light in 2005, leading to her death five months later.
“Golden’s failure to reauthorize the camera program — in light of his own record of reckless driving, and the consequences for our kids — is both obscene and dangerous,” Lander said at the time.
“He’s a reckless driver, and a reckless senator, too.”
Reached by The Post about the speed-demon councilman Thursday, Golden shot back, “Lander is a hypocrite. No doubt about it. It’s a shame he attacked someone else for driving infractions and he’s doing the same thing. It’s pretty sad. He came outside my office and protested.
“Speed zones in school zones do work. They save lives. They reduce accidents. They should be adhered to. Brad is pretty sad. Hopefully he’ll abide by the law going forward. We need to get our city, state and country back on track. Brad is not up to the task.”
Last year, Lander was the primary sponsor of a bill to impound the vehicles of motorists who fail to take a safety course if they amass 15 school-zone speed camera tickets or five red-light camera tickets within a year.
Under his initial proposal, the “Reckless Driver Accountability Act” would have covered drivers with just five school-zone tickets in a year — which Lander himself racked up between May 1, 2020, and March 25.
But that provision was significantly watered down before Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the legislation into law in February 2020.
Meanwhile, The Post on Thursday found Lander’s Toyota Prius parked illegally on 13th Street in Park Slope, near his home, between 9 and 9:30 a.m, when street-sweeping regulations were in effect.
At one point, a Department of Sanitation street cleaning vehicle came by and was blocked from sweeping the curb.
Lander’s dark gray hybrid remained parked until he got in and drove away shortly before noon, even though there’s a two-hour meter limit on the block from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Lander also pulled out of the space without signaling, despite a state law that requires doing so to “start from a parked position.”
No tickets were issued.
In a prepared statement, Lander’s campaign spokeswoman said, “Brad has been a strong advocate for safe streets including campaigning to expand the school speed zone cameras.”
“Because of that campaign, there are more cameras around and more tickets being issued, which is a good thing for street safety,” spokeswoman Naomi Dann added.
