Kern awash in unlicensed drivers
Checkpoints reveal massive numbers; some estimate 1 in 4 unlicensed
| Sunday, Aug 16 2009 11:15 PM
Last Updated Sunday, Aug 16 2009 11:38 PM
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Sobriety checkpoints set up in Bakersfield in recent months haven’t nabbed huge numbers of drunken drivers.
But they’re netting unlicensed drivers by the dozens — with 92 cited at a checkpoint in east Bakersfield last month.
There’s little doubt that the number of unlicensed drivers on Kern County’s roads is way up, and that means more drivers with no insurance — and higher costs and higher risks for the rest of us.
“There’s a high incidence of people driving on a suspended license. Plain and simple, they are breaking the law,” said Charlie Fivecoat, the chief of police in Shafter and the administrator in Kern County of a statewide DUI task force.
“They absolutely don’t have insurance, so you end up paying the bill for them” when they get in an accident, he said.
The numbers
Driver’s license violations have been rising steadily in recent years, both statewide and at the county level, according to records obtained from Kern County Superior Court and the State Office of Traffic Safety.
Between 2006 and 2008, the number of motorists cited in Kern County for driving with a suspended or revoked license rose by nearly 15 percent. Statewide, the number jumped by about 10 percent.
“It’s mind-boggling,” said Travis Mitchell, who helps set up and coordinate sobriety checkpoints for Kern AVOID, a multi-agency task force designed to take impaired drivers off the road.
“There are a lot of people out here driving without a license,” Mitchell said as he helped set up a checkpoint near Bakersfield High earlier this summer.
“One guy told me, ‘Hey, the car will still start with or without a license,’” Mitchell said.
Authorities say many of those who drive without a license are undocumented immigrants who cannot legally obtain a California driver’s license.
But drivers can have their license suspended or revoked for a number of reasons, including multiple DUIs, nonpayment of traffic fines and even failure to pay child support.
Timothy Lemucchi, a longtime Bakersfield attorney who handles accident and personal injury cases, said the growing problem of unlicensed and uninsured drivers potentially affects all of us.
He cited the Insurance Research Council’s findings that estimate one in five California drivers have little or no automobile insurance. And in places with high unemployment rates like Kern, the ratio may be closer to one in four, Lemucchi said.
The impacts
The repercussions are often heartbreaking for motorists who are injured when they collide with an uninsured driver. Loss of income combined with large medical bills can ruin families financially.
And when unlicensed, uninsured drivers get behind the wheel, police say, they may be more likely to hit the gas instead of the brakes when a patrol car’s red lights flash behind them.
Fivecoat and other law enforcement officers say hit-and-run incidents are also a growing problem as motorists driving with a suspended license — or no license at all — may “jackrabbit” rather than stop and face the consequences of a crash.
Lemucchi recommends motorists protect themselves by asking for uninsured and under-insured motorist coverage in their policies.
But he also questions whether suspending driver’s licenses is always a good idea.
“When you jerk their license for nonpayment of child support, it creates a vicious cycle,” he said.
The affected person can’t drive legally, making it tougher to get to work or find a job, making it more difficult to pay child support, which ultimately makes it tougher to get the license back, Lemucchi said.
“This is a public policy issue,” he added. “Are you really accomplishing anything by taking the license?”
Dave Rezac, food server, bartender and trivia game host at Sandrini’s Restaurant in downtown Bakersfield, said his driver’s license was suspended in 2007 when he failed to pay the fine on a speeding ticket he received while travelling in Northern California.
“I completely forgot about it and I don’t think I received a notice in the mail,” he said.
It wasn’t until his wages were garnished that he realized he’d messed up. By then it was too late.
The DMV put a hold on his license until the fine was paid in full. But Rezac had to continue to work two jobs on opposite sides of town if he had any hope of paying off what he owed.
So Rezac continued to drive — very cautiously, he said — until his driving privileges were restored some 18 months later.
“It wasn’t do-able,” he said of his lost driving privileges. “I had to drive to get to work.”
