Deadly drivers: Police, courts can’t keep up with illegal drivers

Carrie J. Sidener / Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: March 2, 2008

It starts with the "suspended shuffle."

The driver pats jacket and pants pockets when asked by a police officer to produce a license.

"That's when I ask, 'Are you suspended-' and they say, 'I shouldn't be,'" said Trooper M.D. Okuley of the Virginia State Police. "That's not the answer a valid driver usually gives."

It's a frustrating situation for law enforcement. Some say as many as two out of every 10 drivers they stop are not validly licensed. Many drivers have been caught two, three, even 10 or more times on a suspended or revoked license.

Local law enforcement officers have watched drivers appear in court on a driving while suspended charge, have their license suspended for even longer and then drive away from the courthouse, where they are stopped and charged again.

"They don't realize that driving in Virginia is a privilege and that privilege can be suspended," said Major Steve Hutcherson of the Campbell County Sheriff's Office.

"They feel like they have a God-given right to drive. They feel they don't have to pay fines or obey traffic laws. 'They took my driver's license but who cares, I'll drive if I want to.'"

The frustration turns to anger when officers investigate crashes like the one just after Christmas on Fort Avenue that killed three people and left a toddler without her parents.

The Lynchburg driver who caused the wreck, Herbert James Jr., had been convicted of driving on a suspended license at least seven times before he crashed head-on into the Johnson family, killing himself and Tony and Ashley Johnson of Evington. Their daughter, 18-month-old Brihanna, survived.

"That's the part that kind of ticks us off from a law enforcement standpoint," said Officer Ronnie Sitler of the Lynchburg Police Department, an investigator who responded to the scene of the crash.

"We've caught these people and put them before the judge and whether it's the judges or the system or the statutes themselves, these people are going back out and driving again. A prime example is Mr. James.

"We can deal with the unfortunate incidents of the victims. You don't ever forget them, but you can kind of move forward. In this case, we have a ... child moving forward without her parents."

The number of suspended drivers in Virginia has increased in the past five years, mainly because there are more ways that drivers can temporarily lose their license. That penalty now applies, for example, to failure to pay child support or court fines, as well as rapid point accumulation for bad driving habits, drug possession and driving under the influence.

Statewide, 14.6 percent of drivers in 2007 had their licenses revoked or suspended - that's 770,426 out of 5.2 million drivers.

Local statistics in 2007 range from 11.9 percent of drivers in Lynchburg, or 4,990, having revoked or suspended licenses to 5.6 percent of drivers in Bedford County, or 2,923.

Virginia notifies drivers of suspensions or revocations in two ways - in a court hearing, or through the mail if the action is taken because of unpaid fines or child support.

The mail notification can be problematic for officers on patrol, since they cannot be sure the driver actually received the notice. So if that driver is caught behind the wheel during their suspension, often they only can be charged with driving without a valid license, a lesser offense.

"Not everyone is truthful on the side of the road," Sitler said. "They may have 'forgotten' they signed a letter in court or got that letter mailed to them."

Most suspended drivers that police end up stopping are suspended for failing to pay fines, Sitler said. They aren't necessarily bad drivers, he said, but have certain circumstances that make it hard for them to pay fines like child support.

"Then we have people out here who don't care about paying fines and they still go out and drive," he said. "They never change their habits because they haven't been punished. They never paid the first time. Some owe several hundreds, even thousands (of dollars), in fines."

Those who continue to drive on a revoked or suspended license are more prone to leave the scene of an accident or to lead police who try to stop them on high-speed chases, Hutcherson said.

Amherst Sheriff's Capt. M.G. Robinson said Virginia's punishment for driving on an invalid license is not enough of a deterrent.

"We arrest the same people over and over again," Robinson said. "It's not uncommon for a person that has one (suspension) to snowball into another. When they are caught, their license is suspended for an additional 60 days or whatever. People get under a financial bind that they can never get out of."

Officers can choose to write a ticket to drivers caught driving without a valid license for the first and second offense, said Okuley, of the state police. Most choose that route rather than make an arrest.

"Quite frankly, it's manpower," Okuley said. "We can issue a summons for the first and second offense for driving while revoked or suspended or we can arrest. We are working two or three troopers to a county. It's not feasible to arrest a person for driving suspended and then spend three hours at the jail. That only leaves one or two troopers on the road.

"I don't know what the answer is. Some say it's more fines, but they are suspended for not paying the fines that got them suspended in the first place."

For a while, Capt. Kevin Adams, of the Bedford County Sheriff's Office, said deputies received information from the Department of Motor Vehicles about habitual offenders who do not have a license. Deputies then could look for the drivers on the road.

The information was in a report that the DMV sent out quarterly to law enforcement that listed a habitual offender's name, address and prior convictions, said Melanie Stokes, DMV spokeswoman. That ended when the habitual offender law was repealed in 1999.

"Some people think they have the right to drive," Adams said. "That's not correct. It's a privilege to drive on the highways of Virginia and that privilege can be revoked."

Appomattox Sheriff Wilson Staples said his deputies know of a number of people who are suspended in the county. His office has concentrated enforcement efforts to prevent those drivers from getting behind the wheel.

"The only thing that works is incarceration, and sometimes that doesn't work," Staples said. "It's their mindset. People think they are above the law and will continue to do it. ... The mindset is, 'I can drive and maybe I won't get caught.' They take that chance.

"It's all up to the individual to make good decisions, and a lot of times they make poor ones."