Immigrant driver law may boost road safety

An angry debate about immigration policy and national security has surrounded Senate Bill 60, the new California law that will let an estimated 2 million illegal immigrants apply for driver’s licenses.

No matter how you feel about illegal immigrants in social, political or economic terms, there is a highway safety issue involved in granting anyone a driver’s license.

Highway safety experts say SB 60 will make our roads safer by encouraging those who cannot currently obtain licenses because of their immigration status to go through the training required by the state for a license.

In California, more than 20% of fatal crashes involve at least one driver who does not have a legal license, according to a June 2000 study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

California has 22.6 million licensed drivers, the California Department of Motor Vehicles says, and with some portion of the 2 million illegal immigrants driving, clearly they play a role in safety issues.

For decades California allowed illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses -- until 1994, when the state began requiring all DMV applicants to supply a Social Security number.

“We support SB 60 because we believe California’s roads will be safer when all drivers are properly tested, licensed and insured,” said Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, a consumer advocacy group in Sacramento.

“The new law will absolutely improve safety,” said Jerry Davies, a spokesman for the Personal Insurance Foundation.

By the time middle-class 15-year-old kids in California get their learner’s permits, they have spent years watching adults drive and learned the nuances of navigating busy streets and freeways.

By contrast, poor immigrants from rural areas have spent comparatively little time in cars, even in their home countries. Not only do they lack any cultural context to use the streets, but they have not received driving instruction or passed any tests, said Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), SB 60’s sponsor.

The DMV licensing test may be only partly effective, but it still is a tough hurdle for applicants, 70% of whom fail the written part on the first attempt. They fail because they don’t have a clue about what’s in the California driver’s handbook, the DMV’s compendium of highway laws, safe driving practices and guides to the meaning of road markings.

“The Department of Motor Vehicles has taken no position on SB 60,” said agency spokesman Bill Branch. “But DMV has long taken the position that the more people are tested and licensed, the roads are going to be safer.”

Cedillo said that all too often he sees motorists, presumably including illegal immigrants, stopped on yellow lights or not turning right on red lights. “They don’t know that yellow means proceed with caution. This bill is absolutely about highway safety,” he said.

Last year 256,643 drivers -- immigrants and non-immigrants -- were arrested for driving without legal licenses, the CHP said. Without a license, even minor accidents or routine traffic stops by police mean being charged with operating a vehicle without a license or being discovered as an illegal resident. All too often, the unlicensed flee.

The incentive to flee may weaken because drivers will not be charged with driving without a license and will know that, with their thumb print and photo in the DMV system, they can be identified more readily by the police.

Separate from the safety issue is the insurance problem. Without a license, drivers cannot obtain coverage. Some estimates say 1 in 4 California drivers lacks insurance.

The insurance industry is supporting SB 60, though not because it is excited about a rush of new business. State Farm, the state’s largest automobile insurer, says it requires three years of driving history before it will provide insurance, except for teens under a parent’s policies.

Many immigrants with new licenses are going to end up in the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan, the insurer of last resort for drivers with bad records or with no records. “As long as you have a driver’s license, you can come to us,” said Richard Manning, the plan’s manager.

That’s not saying much. A driver under age 30 with a clean driving record would pay $1,071 annually for up to $15,000 of bodily injury coverage per injured driver or $30,000 per accident.

It’s bare-bones coverage, but if you are hit by one of these drivers, it will be better than nothing.

Once illegal immigrants can qualify for licenses on Jan. 1, should the state enact tougher criminal penalties for driving without a license? Cedillo said he would support such a measure.

Ralph Vartabedian can be reached at ralph.vartabedian @latimes.com.