Limo Law Could Leave NYC Kids Without School Buses, Drivers Say

NEW YORK CITY — A new law meant to make stretch limos safer could leave hundreds of New York City children without the means to get to school by saddling private school bus companies with insurance fees they say they cannot afford to pay.

More than 60 private school bus company owners rallied on the steps of City Hall Wednesday to beg Gov. Andrew Cuomo to modify new legislation mandating they carry a $1.5 million insurance policy, more than double their current rate.

"If this law passes, I can't continue," said Julia Chapuseaux, owner of Millennium Transport and driver of the company's single bus.

Chapuseaux said of her clients, "These are low income parents, they don't have nobody to take care of their kids."

The school bus company owners say they provide a vital service to low-income parents who can't afford childcare and need someone to take their kids to school.

That's because not all children are guaranteed a city-sponsored ride to school, only those who meet specific guidelines set by the New York City Department of Education.

Children who live within a half mile of their school must find other means of transportation, so parents often rely on private companies to pick up young kids they don't want to send off alone into city streets.

The companies currently charge about $40 per week per child, but that number could go up to $100 a week to manage insurance rates set to rise from about $5,000 to more than $10,000-a-month, they said.

The group organized a strike Wednesday to protest the law and Jackie Zurita, of the three-bus operation El-Jay Transportation Corp., said she saw one of her second graders walking to school alone.

"What else could his parents do?" said the concerned Zurita. "This isn't safe."

The law in question comes from a package of limousine safety bills proposed earlier this year in the wake of the tragic Schoharie limousine crash in October 2018 when a limousine driver blew through a stop sign, slammed into a parked SUV outside and killed himself, 17 passengers and two pedestrians in one of the nation's deadliest crashes in a nearly decade.

Victims family members and a federal review board blamed shoddy oversight — the limo wasn't registered and had been previously ordered out of service by a DOT inspector for various safety problems — and lawmakers scrambled to respond with legislation.

Both chambers passed competing reform packages in June, spurring an overlap that delayed passage and will have to be revisited in 2020, City & State reported earlier this year.

But Assembly Bill A7789, which increases insurance requirements for all for-hire vehicles with eight passengers or more, made it onto Cuomo's desk and he signed it into law on Oct. 23, state records show.

"They had a knee jerk reaction to an accident," said Queens advocate Anthony Miranda. "They didn't classify by modes of transport."

Miranda, a Democratic candidate for Queens Borough President, said he wants to see Cuomo add in that reclassification he argues would protect women- and hispanic-owned small businesses providing a vital service to their communities.

"They're the only ones who provide this service," said Miranda. "This can't be acceptable."

But for Kensley Ramos, co-owner of Kensley's Transport whose mom and business partner Sophia has been taking him on her routes since he was four months old, it's about the kids.

"This is drastic," said Ramos. "It isn't safe."

Correction: The original version of this story misidentified Anthony Miranda as a former candidate for Queens Borough President.