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AID=/20070204/NEWS10/702040349

Frustrations over licenses well up
Some want laws eased; others seek tougher penalties

By LEE ROOD - REGISTER STAFF WRITER

February 4, 2007
     
Mark Melton bought the $4,000 car for his 17-year-old daughter in early
January. Nine days later, it was totaled in a crash with a woman who,
court records showed, had been driving unlicensed and uninsured on and
off for years.

"She ran a red light and hit the rear end of my daughter's car," said
Melton, of Des Moines, who filed a small-claims lawsuit against the
driver in Polk County. "Now I am left holding the bag."

The series "Who Deserves to Drive?" published last week in The Des Moines
Register triggered an outpouring of frustration from Melton and others
about the record number of Iowans who have lost their licenses and hefty
debate about what should be done to those who choose to drive anyway.

"There were a lot of people who didn't realize the issues raised," said
state Rep. Geri Huser, a Democrat who heads the House's transportation
committee.

The Register investigation found that the rate of driver's-license
sanctions by the Iowa Department of Transportation - a sanction occurs
when a license is suspended, revoked or barred - has doubled in a decade
and that more than 310,000 license sanctions were in effect last year.

Among other findings of the series:

- Failing to pay the state's escalating court fines and fees is by far
the No. 1 reason more Iowans are losing their driving privileges. More
than 200,000 license sanctions are in effect because of unpaid fines and
fees.

- Law changes giving the DOT broader oversight of drivers have led to new
license suspensions soaring by 82 percent over seven years.

- The state has failed to collect $438.7 million in fines and fees - a
record amount.

- Some of the most dangerous offenders face few serious penalties
compared with others convicted of driving with a suspended license.

- The young are some of the most likely to commit offenses, rack up
fines, get in crashes and lose their licenses.

Reaction to the series ranged from those who empathized with some low-
income Iowans - such as those who said they could not afford to pay court
fines because they have increased as much as 525 percent in the last
decade - to people who said they supported stiff consequences, such as
mandatory vehicle impoundment, for those who drive uninsured.

Richard Orta of Des Moines said policy-makers have been effectively
criminalizing people who need to drive but cannot afford to pay the
penalties for common traffic offenses.

A disabled veteran, Orta said he has tried unsuccessfully to get work so
he can pay off his own court fines. He said he has paid his traffic fines
to date but has been unable to pay the $400 civil penalty the state also
levies for driving unlicensed.

"Since when is it a privilege for most people to drive?" Orta asked. "If
you don't work, you don't feed your family, and you become a drain on
society."

Another issue is that drivers who have their licenses suspended, revoked
or barred by the DOT often cannot get insurance or cannot afford high-
risk insurance as a result. Many drive anyway.

"I think that's the only thing you can do to make it known that it's not
OK for them to drive," said retiree Mary Duncan of Ankeny.

Duncan said she recently moved from Windsor Heights, where she routinely
watched an elderly neighbor struggle to his car so he could drive. The
neighbor, she said, had lost his license after several accidents.

"It's just sad," she said. "It makes me wonder how many people there are
like that."

Others - even some who have broken the law themselves - expressed little
sympathy for unlicensed drivers.

"You can avoid most of the consequences by simply obeying traffic laws,"
said state Rep. Chuck Gipp, R-Decorah, who is currently on probation for
past speeding offenses. Gipp said the Iowa Department of Transportation
has notified him that he will lose his license if he is ticketed for
another moving violation before June.

State Rep. Rick Olson, D-Des Moines, said he is sponsoring legislation
this year to fix "quirks" in the law that result in drivers losing their
licenses for longer than is necessary. He said he believes the
Legislature should do two more things to allow more Iowans to stay on the
road legally.

First, he said, the state should ease the yearlong probationary period
for people who have had licenses suspended. In the late 1990s,
legislators agreed to a law change that provided for the DOT to re-
suspend the license of anyone who has a new moving violation in a year's
time.

Secondly, he said, if state leaders are going to increase court fines and
fees in lieu of raising taxes, they should at least let drivers keep
their licenses while making payments on that debt.

"It's crazy not to do that," said Olson, an attorney.

Ray Blase, a bureau chief for Polk County Attorney John Sarcone, said his
office plans to ask the Board of Supervisors on Monday for permission to
hire three new workers to collect fines.

The county believes the employees would be able to collect more than
their positions would cost using contempt-of-court proceedings, wage
garnishment and other actions.

About 38 percent of the fines levied in Polk County go uncollected, the
Register's investigation revealed.

The prosecutor's officials also would like to work with the courts on a
program that would allow low-income offenders to keep their licenses as
long as they make regular progress on their fines. "Nothing been agreed
to yet, but the goal is to keep more people on the road legally," Blase
said.

Melton said he understands how small problems can escalate, but he said
he believes authorities should crack down on those who repeatedly drive
uninsured. He said that he set up a meeting with the woman who hit his
daughter and that the woman never showed.

"We need to come down a lot harder on these people," he said. "I did what
I was supposed to do to make sure my daughter was covered. She should
have to too. Not carrying insurance is a very big deal."

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Amazing how some of these iowans want to coddle the reckless drivers who
kill and maim innocent people.