
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 17, 1993                   TAG: 9307190260
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WHAT OTHER STATES HAVE LEARNED

Virginia is one of 20 states with a habitual-offender traffic law. But with a recent study, it became only the fourth state to examine the statute's effectiveness.

Here's what studies in the other three states found:

North Carolina

In a law similar to Virginia's, habitual offenders were banned from the roads, with violators facing one to five years in prison.

A few years after the law went on the books, it became apparent that a large number of potential habitual offenders never were taken to court.

The study compared accidents and convictions involving motorists who were declared habitual offenders and those who qualified but were never declared as such. It found no significant difference. One year later, the law was repealed.

\ California

When the program was started in 1984, the California Department of Motor Vehicles found 13,725 drivers eligible to be declared habitual offenders.

Only 538 were prosecuted, and just a fourth of those convicted - an overall conviction rate of less than 1 percent.

Most district attorneys refused to prosecute the cases because of manpower shortages and concerns about double-jeopardy problems raised by other charges lodged against the drivers.

\ Pennsylvania

This law, unlike Virginia's, doesn't require jail time. Instead, anyone accumulating three major convictions within five years would be subject to a five-year license revocation. Additional convictions could result in another two-year revocation.

In interviews with a sample group of habitual offenders, 75 percent said they continued to drive after their licenses were revoked.

Memo: ***CORRECTION***

by CNB