If you've been driving on American roads for a long time, there's a good chance you've picked up at least a couple of tickets. Maybe you were in a rush and got snagged speeding by a highway patrol officer, or you just missed updating your parking meter and found a ticket on your windshield. We all make mistakes. Some people make an awful lot more than others, and Washington D.C. is after the most chronic and high-dollar violators. In just the last two months, it impounded cars from two major violators, and the district is recovering loads of money.
D.C.'s Crusade Against Chronic Traffic Offenders
Our headline impounds start with the top dollar violator, the owner of an Audi Q5. The department shared that it impounded the car last week with 893 total traffic violations. According to Washington's WUSA 9, an NBC affiliate, the total cost of those fines came to a staggering $262,204. The driver seemed to be racking up violations fast, as the news outlet found out that 29 of those tickets came in the last two months, all for speeding.
Perhaps even more remarkable is that this car wasn't a total fluke. Washington's NBC 4 reported that D.C. police got another car with $213,000 in violations last month. WUSA 9 also noted a violator with $77,000 in fines. Both news outlets reported plenty of violators with comparatively smaller fine totals, but still reaching the four-figure range.
It seems that this crackdown is closely related to the passage of a new law last April. The Washington D.C. District Council passed something called the STEER Act, which aimed to give law enforcement greater ability to go after drivers with frequent traffic violations. According to documentation related to the law, it introduces a variety of new tools to go after violators, including allowing for civil suits to be filed to help get border states like Maryland and Virginia to apprehend violators. It also updated existing law so that people with enough violations in a 6-month period can't just pay the fines and get their car or license back, they must also complete a training curriculum.
The law and increased enforcement may be making some difference. NBC 4 reported that as of the start of April, the district had recovered $896,673 from violators in the form of paid fines, as well as impounded cars that were auctioned or sold for scrap. WUSA 9 found that traffic fatalities in D.C. were down by 52% in the year since the law passed, though it notes that's a causal connection, so it's always possible other factors are at play.
Source: WUSA 9, NBC 4, Washington D.C. District Council
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This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.
