Hit the brakes

Come Sept. 1, the widely despised Driver Responsibility Program that created a debtors prison for the state’s most vulnerable citizens, including many in Hood County, will be no more.

Revenue lost from the program, which was created to fund trauma centers, will be made up through increases in traffic fines (about $20) and vehicle insurance (about $2 per year).

Money will also be raised through heftier fines for those who get DWIs and have had other intoxication offenses.

Created 16 years ago, the DRP imposed surcharges on drivers caught committing such offenses as driving without a license or driving under the influence.

In addition to standard fines offenders were forced to pay three-year annual surcharges ranging from $250 per year for a less serious offense to $2,000 per year for a DWI in which their Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) was found to be 0.16 or higher.

Confusion caused by the program’s online payment system resulted in some people’s payments being considered late, resulting in yet another round of annual penalties.

The HCN reported on the program’s effect on local residents in a package of articles called “State of Despair” published on Saturday, May 6, 2017.

Hood County citizens, including single parents, reported not being able to attend college classes or drive themselves to work or to cancer treatments.

Even lawyers, judges and prosecutors said the program was fraught with problems and doomed drivers to multiple punishments and seemingly endless debt.

According to the Texas Tribune, 1.4 million Texans were ineligible to obtain driver’s licenses because of the program as of January 2018.

All that will stop now.

Gov. Greg Abbott recently signed House Bill 2048, a bill that ended the Driver Responsibility Program.

Once the law takes effect less than two months from now, any pending surcharges will be wiped out, no surcharges will imposed going forward and the Department of Public Safety will be required to reinstate any driver’s licenses that were suspended under the program.

Lawmakers knew for some time that there were significant problems with the program but efforts to end or tweak it were largely unsuccessful until this year.

Terri Burke, executive director for the ACLU of Texas, is among those celebrating the program’s demise.

“With partners across the state, the ACLU of Texas has worked for years to end this program,” she stated in a press release. “This is a major step in our quest to create a criminal justice system for Texas that is not only smarter but more just, particularly for those most affected by systemic hardship.”

kcruz@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 258