Dangerous drivers hit road illegally
Ignore licence needs, study finds
Thousands banned after driving drunk
COLIN PERKEL
CANADIAN PRESS
- Toronto Star - May 20, 2004
Thousands of Ontario's most dangerous motorists are opting to drive illegally and without insurance rather than go through the hassle of getting their
suspended licences reactivated, a study released yesterday indicates.
The situation has dramatically worsened since the province implemented tougher laws
in 1998 aimed at curbing the carnage caused by drunk drivers, notes the study, commissioned by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Among other requirements,
the law made it mandatory to attend a special $475 program for licence reinstatement.
"The ones that obey their suspension are the ones that are showing
up for the course and doing all the things they should be to get their licence reinstated," said Andrew Murie, MADD's national executive director.
"The
worst offenders are the people that aren't showing up, so the most dangerous people are out there on the roadways, driving without insurance, driving
without a licence."
The study by Synectics Transportation Consultants indicates more than half the 16,000 drivers in Ontario who lose their licences for
alcohol-related infractions each year simply opt out of the system.
Before 1998, only about 16 per cent of drunk drivers had not reactivated their licences
within six months following the end of their one-year suspensions.
After implementation of the tougher rules in 1998, the study found that ratio soared
to 54 per cent — more than 8,500 drivers a year. And the trend is upward.
"If what's happening is that people are dropping out of the system, then the
whole process of attempting to manage poor behaviour and to track and monitor it might be for naught — at least for a certain portion of drivers," said
Brian Malone, vice-president of Synectics.
Previous research in both Canada and the United States has shown as many as three-quarters of suspended drivers
continue to get behind the wheel.
One Transport Canada survey in Moncton, N.B., a few years ago indicated close to 60 per cent of those with suspended
licences drive anyway.
Research has also shown suspended drivers are disproportionately involved in deadly and other serious crashes.
