State Ranks 4th in ‘Unlicensed to Kill’ Report

More than 1 in 5 California drivers involved in fatal crashes were driving with expired, revoked or suspended licenses or had never even had a license, according to a study released Wednesday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

The national study, analyzing accident data from 1993 to 1997, found that 22% of the drivers involved in fatal crashes in California had invalid licenses or none at all. Nationally, the rate is 13.8%, the study concluded.

California had the nation’s fourth-worst record for the percentage of unlicensed drivers involved in fatal crashes. New Mexico had the worst, with unlicensed drivers involved in 23.9% of its fatal crashes. Maine, with 6.4%, had the best record.

Southern California sources familiar with the problem said they were not surprised by the state’s high figure.

“The Legislature for years has been trying to deal with people driving without licenses,” said Los Angeles County Court Commissioner Gary L. Bindman, who each day deals with 125 to 150 cases in which suspects are accused of driving without a license or driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. “The problem is that no matter what the Legislature does--and no matter what the courts do--people are continuing to drive, and we can’t keep them from driving.”

The study, titled “Unlicensed to Kill,” analyzed five years of crash data to learn more about the license status of drivers involved in fatal crashes.

According to the study, Southern California leads the nation in hit-and-run cases, and researchers said part of the reason for that may be that many of those involved in such crashes flee the scene because they don’t have valid licenses.

A major contributor to California’s bad record is the state’s large number of drunk driving arrests, many of which result in suspended licenses, according to Steven Bloch. Bloch is a traffic safety researcher for the Automobile Club of Southern California, which helped finance the AAA study.

“We arrest a lot of drunk drivers in this state,” said Bloch. “We usually account for about 20% of all DUI arrests in the nation.”

A statement released by the local AAA office suggests that stiffer measures should be used against drivers with multiple DUIs, such as impounding their vehicles or requiring ignition-locking devices that force drivers to pass an in-car Breathalyzer test before starting their cars.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving used release of the study to reiterate its call for stiff penalties for persons involved in multiple drunk driving violations.

“If you don’t learn your lesson with your first DUI, then if you have a second DUI, you should lose your license,” said Linda Oxenreider, the California state chairwoman for MADD, from her home in Ventura County.

Under existing laws, judges can impound vehicles or require ignition locks, but their record of imposing those requirements is spotty, Bloch said.

Citing an earlier study, Bloch said that only about 15% of judges hand down sentences calling for the locking devices.

Bloch was on a state task force that last year helped pass a law giving drivers an incentive to use the devices, which in the past was plagued by technical problems but which has been improved recently. Under that law, which went into effect last July, multiple offense drivers can reduce a two-year sentence to one year if they agree to an ignition lock.

Bindman said he believes the new law on ignition locks will help reduce the problem of people getting behind the wheel when they shouldn’t. But he said people’s perceived need to drive so they can get to work or meet other obligations sometimes overrides their judgment.

“I have people come in who have been stopped four, five or six times with suspended licenses before they even come to court on the first case,” he said.

Findings of the study challenge what AAA researcher Bloch said was a widespread perception that a large percentage of fatal accidents in California are caused by immigrants who come across the border and drive even though they don’t have licenses.

In California, Bloch said, far more drivers with suspended or revoked licenses were involved in fatal crashes than unlicensed drivers.

During the five-year period under study, 5.6% of the fatal accidents involved drivers without licenses, a group that would include unlicensed immigrants. Those with suspended or revoked licenses were involved in 9% of the fatal accidents.

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Deadly Drivers

Here are the nations highest percentages of drivers with invalid licenses who were involved in fatal crashes, according to a study by the Automobile Club of Southern California.

New Mexico: 23.9%

Washington, D.C.: 23.1%

Arizona: 23.0%

California: 22.03%

Hawaii: 22.0%

Alaska: 17.5%

Alabama: 17.4%

Washington: 16.1%

Idaho: 15.9%

North Dakota: 15.7%

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Note: Data include drivers who were unlicensed, or whose licenses were suspended, revoked,expired, canceled or denied.

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Source: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 1993-97 data