Traffic Violation + You = Jail

Senator Eliot Shapleigh would like to let you know that if you drive a car and live in either Austin or El Paso, there's about an 11% chance that you have a warrant out for your arrest.

The story is bizarre, and I hadn't heard about it all until I spied this news story, but apparently some legislation from 2003 called the Driver Responsibility Act stacks surcharges to the state on top of fines incurred for traffic violations. It was meant to generate some dollars for trauma centers and road programs, but it apparently was out of hand from the beginning. From the El Paso Times piece:

Under the program, drivers rack up points for moving violations like driving more than 10 percent faster than the speed limit, running a red light, or causing an accident.

After six points, the Texas Department of Public Safety charges the driver $100 a year for three years.

Some offenses, like driving with an invalid license or without insurance, bring automatic surcharges. Those ones cost $250 a year for three years, a total of $750 for one violation.

Shapleigh argues that this is unfair to the poor and that they are disproportionately punished by this system, along with making the argument that the fees on top of the fines are just too high to begin with. For the working poor, a simple traffic violation could spiral into a series of problems from which escape is unlikely or very difficult.

Imagine: for speeding or an expired registration, you end up having to pay years of fees, and if you can't pay them, you get arrested. Which, of course, makes it harder to pay the fines you were arrested for plus whatever new fines and legal fees are levied against you.

Shapleigh has asked for a probe into the program, and I like that State Senator John Carona's office had only thus far noted the disappointing revenue generated by the program. This might be an issue that actually sees the legislative light of day in '09.