The
Portland (Maine) Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram ran a
three-day print project and a large-scale online multimedia presentation about the large number of people in that state who are driving despite having suspended licenses. It is the kind of project that any newsroom could consider adapting.
Drivers with suspended licenses are disproportionately involved in serious crashes. Computer glitches are contributing to the lack of enforcement.
The paper found:
Once every 10 hours, on average, a driver with a suspended license gets into a crash in Maine.
What's more, one-quarter of these suspended drivers have been drinking or using drugs before they crash.
And when these collisions occur, it's far more likely that
someone will suffer a serious injury or die than in crashes involving
licensed drivers.
The newspaper's analysis showed:
When suspended drivers are involved in crashes, the likelihood
that someone will die is six times greater than when properly licensed
drivers crash. The newspaper's analysis found that 20 people are killed
for every 1,000 crashes involving suspended drivers, compared with just
three deaths for every 1,000 legal drivers in crashes.
When suspended drivers crash, there is a four times greater
likelihood that someone will suffer an incapacitating injury, which is
defined as one that keeps the person from performing normal activities,
such as walking or driving, at least initially. Seventy-five people
suffer incapacitating injuries for every 1,000 suspended drivers in
crashes, compared with 17 people for every 1,000 legal drivers in
crashes.
Suspended drivers are 10 times more likely than legal drivers
to have been using drugs or alcohol at the time of a crash. For every
1,000 suspended drivers involved in crashes, about 270 of them had been
using drugs or alcohol, compared with 27 out of every 1,000 licensed
drivers involved in accidents.
Just 1.4 percent of all drivers in the roughly 160,000 crashes
from 2003 to 2006 had a suspended or revoked license, yet they
accounted for 4.2 percent of drivers in crashes where someone was
killed or seriously injured.
And here's how the paper did the project:
To reach these conclusions, the newspaper analyzed records from
about 160,000 motor-vehicle crashes that occurred from 2003 to 2006
using a statewide database obtained through Maine's Freedom of Access
Act; examined hundreds of individual driving records; and interviewed
scores of motorists, victims, traffic safety researchers, policymakers
and law enforcement officials.
