Comment by snakeyjake | Hacker News Reader

Comment by snakeyjake | Hacker News Reader

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According to Road To Nowhere, the OPLC report this article's sources (the Fines and Fees Justice Center and the Free to Drive Campaign) are based on, in 2020 there were 1,133,810 suspended drivers in the system:

22.8% (258,730) were license forfeitures. When a person is charged with a misdemeanor driving offense and either does not show up to court or fails to pay the fine.

4.8% (54,802) were judgement suspension. When a person causes property damage or personal injury due to a car crash and is fined, and does not pay the fine.

6.7% (75,906) were child support suspensions. Self explanatory.

59.9% (679,014) were non-compliance suspension. Non-compliance suspensions is when the driver is asked to provide proof of insurance at a traffic stop or scene of an accident and does not.

3.8% (43,630) were random selection suspensions. Random selection suspension is when they take a random sample of people shown in their system to not have vehicle insurance and ask them to provide proof of insurance, and then they do not.

1.9% (21,728) were security suspension. Security suspension are people with active criminal warrants.

https://lasclev.org/wp-content/uploads/Road-to-Nowhere_hirez...

Additionally there are "blocks" (527,058) where a person has a valid license or registration but cannot renew it either due to an outstanding warrant (378,523) or unpaid court fines (148,538).

As someone who was struck and injured by an uninsured driver, not only should uninsured drivers have their licenses suspended, any vehicle they are found operating or in possession of regardless of who owns it should be shredded and recycled with the scrap value going to a fund to compensate victims.

edit: also, I have been driving for 30 years and never been issued a ticket, been at fault in a crash, or had a single insurance claim except for chipped windshields. My insurance is so low I don't even know how much it costs. It is my assertion that operating vehicle in a manner that avoids accidents, fines, and court cases is easy, especially since I'm entirely average in my abilities, and I have very little sympathy for those who cannot do so.

Insurance seems to be the reason for most of the suspensions. I don't have a ton of sympathy for driving without insurance, but it seems quite likely that there is a feedback cycle of punishment here that could probably be improved. Like it can be harder to get insurance once you've been caught without insurance, and there might be additional fines involved, and once you get your license suspended there's often more steps to go through to resolve that as well.

The goal of the system should really be to get everyone insured, and I suspect there are people who don't just have financial problems resolving this but also a hard time navigating the bureaucracy.

It's probably because there are people so marginal and enforcement so lax wherein you have to get pulled over to get caught that it may make economic sense to skirt the system this way. You could make it hard to pay taxes on a car or keep owning it without also getting insurance on it to curb this. Cars with no current plate are pretty noticeable.

> any vehicle they are found operating or in possession of regardless of who owns it should be shredded and recycled with the scrap value going to a fund to compensate victims.

Assuming you take the vehicle, you should sell it as-is if possible, it will likely provide more value than shredding it. Even if you have to sell it to a dismantler, the parts are probably more valuable before you shred them.

It certainly doesn't seem fair for the government to take a car from an owner if its use was unauthorized, but if you want to do it for authorized use vehicles, then you should seek to get a reasonable sale and the funds should go towards a specific debt incured by the user; if the vehicle sells for more than those debts (less cost of sale), the balance should be returned to the owner. Same as if it were a house foreclosure or an abandoned car.

I would consider not having liability insurance to fall under 'bad driving'.

"There's no barrier between me and the audience, but that doesn't mean I can't juggle chainsaws."

"There's no soap to wash my hands, but that doesn't mean I'm bad at surgery."

"There are no tests, but that doesn't mean I'm a bad at writing software."

>Random selection suspension is when they take a random sample of people shown in their system to not have vehicle insurance and ask them to provide proof of insurance

Why are we only randomly sampling this rather than exhaustively?

>any vehicle they are found operating or in possession of regardless of who owns it should be shredded and recycled with the scrap value going to a fund to compensate victims.

So you're saying that next time someone steals your car for a joyride, you'd prefer if it got destroyed rather than just left somewhere?

Your guess is as good as mine.

I can only imagine that there is a lag in reporting from insurance companies, maybe they're batched, so instantly sending out a notice to everyone showing a lapse in coverage would result in a lot of unnecessary letters being sent out.

> 22.8% (258,730) were license forfeitures. When a person is charged with a misdemeanor driving offense and either does not show up to court or fails to pay the fine.

I didn't show up to court once, over a civil matter.

Thats because I was kicked out of my parents house. Homeless. And when I tried to go to the BMV to declare homeless status and NOT to send mail to that address, they refused me. I got a civil summons in the mail. Parents destroyed it and all mail addressed to me. And I got a summary judgement against me.

I tried to change it to my email address with the BMV, as that was stable. Of course not. Homeless people are less than humans who deserve derision and hate... and judgements against you.

I wonder how many of that 258730 fell into the same boat?

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