Twenty-five percent of the driver license suspensions in Ohio are the result of offenses that are not related to operating a motor vehicle, according to a newspaper analysis.
The Dayton Daily News reported that 39 percent of the 9.9 million license suspensions from 2006 to 2009 were for drivers who had no car insurance, and another 36 percent were for other driving-related issues. The rest had nothing to do with driving infractions.
Among the suspensions not related to driving are about 616,000 revocations for people who failed to pay child support, according to the newspaper’s review of Ohio Department of Public Safety data.
“The intent of license suspensions was to get bad drivers off the road,” said Montgomery County Sheriff Phillip Plummer. “But there are so many sanctions now, some of them counterproductive.”
The state has 46 categories of license suspensions. In 2009, the most recent year analyzed, more than 2.6 million suspensions were issued among the state’s roughly 7 million licensed drivers.
Vandalia police Chief Douglas Knight said drivers often have multiple suspensions.
“It’s not uncommon for them to say to the officer that they knew they’d let their insurance lapse or knew they hadn’t paid their reinstatement fees because they just didn’t have the money,” he said.
Judges say the high number of the suspensions impacts the work of courts.
Clermont County Municipal Judge Jim Shriver, president of the Association of Municipal/County Court Judges, said the group wants to work with the Legislature to redesign laws that can be changed.
“These cases are taking a considerable amount of time that could be devoted to more serious criminal offenders,” he said.
Dayton Municipal Presiding Judge John Pickrel suggests that judges be permitted to order drivers with difficult fines, court costs and reinstatement fees to community service, a payment plan or limited driving privileges.
“You have people who are really dangerous drivers, who are a threat to us all by being on the road,” said state Sen. Peggy Lehner, a Kettering Republican. “And then you have those people who are caught up in this whole tangled web of license suspension, can’t afford to pay the fines, so they keep on driving, then they get another one because they get picked up for maybe running a stop sign. And these things mount and mount and mount.”
Information from: Dayton Daily News
Topics Personal Auto Ohio
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