Legislature Addresses Suspended Driving

The state legislature has finally gotten serious about drivers who have had their licenses suspended or revoked—sort of. HB 2384 which was passed by the 2013 legislature and signed by the governor would allow the police to confiscate, in some cases, the vehicle operated by a driver who had lost their license.

Driving suspended or revoked is a huge problem in Oregon. Each year, more than 40,000 individuals in the state are convicted of this violation. These illegal drivers, particularly those who have been suspended for driving-related offenses, are among the most dangerous people on our roads. They are twice as likely to violate traffic laws and four times as likely to be involved in a crash. Reports of crashes in which the driver was cited for driving while suspended occur with mind-numbing regularity and, in fact, 20 percent of fatal crashes involve at least one unlicensed driver.

Notwithstanding the danger that the suspended drivers represent to the law-abiding public, for years the state of Oregon’s response to a conviction for driving while suspended has been to issue yet another license suspension. During just a five-year period, 1,684 drivers each accumulated 10 or more convictions and the driving records of some individuals show 40 or more convictions.

In 2007, one such individual killed a pedestrian in downtown Salem. The driver had not had a driver license for at least seven years. Yet, his “license” had been suspended 16 times during that period. For killing a pedestrian, he was cited for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk, driving with a suspended license, driving without insurance, and failing to carry a driver license. The incident resulted in a public uproar. The Statesman-Journal and other news organizations editorialized that something had to be done. After a considerable amount of handwringing and posturing, state legislators convened a task force to look into the problem, an effort that yielded nothing.

Now, six years after the death in downtown Salem and another 240,000 driving while suspended or revoked convictions, HB 2384 will allow local police to seize a driver’s vehicle for forfeiture if the driver is convicted of criminal or aggravated driving while suspended or revoked—the most egregious types of driving suspended—and were previously been convicted of the same offense within the previous three years. Thus, endangering (on a regular basis) everybody who travels on public roads is added to a host of other offenses for which property may be forfeited including misuse of an identification card, unlawfully distributing cigarettes, and unauthorized use of a livestock animal.

Only time will tell if the new law is effective in dealing with suspended drivers. Each police department intending to act under the new law will be required to adopt polices and procedures to establish the circumstances under which they will seize a vehicle. They will only be able to seize a vehicle that is owned by the suspended driver unless they are able to prove that the “innocent” vehicle owner was a part of the criminal behavior. It will be interesting to see how many family members and friends of suspended drivers “had no idea” that the person to whom they loaned their car didn’t have a valid driver license.

At least, however, legislators have now done something to address the problem. Or, something to allow them to assert that they’ve addressed the problem.