A MAN who dodged paying 135 traffic tickets has been slapped with a lawsuit as Washington DC cracks down on reckless drivers.
Under a tough new law, out-of-state drivers who rack up fines in the District can no longer get away with ignoring them.
Out-of-state drivers were previously allowed to rack up tickets in Washington DC without being forced to pay up.
Now, the Steer Act allows prosecutors to seize property, garnish wages, and use other legal methods to collect unpaid traffic fines– and DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb isn’t wasting time.
He filed lawsuits against three Maryland drivers who owe a combined $93,000 in fines on Friday.
“As DC’s independent attorney general, I intend to aggressively enforce this law,” Schwalb told NBC local affiliate WRC-TV.
“Traffic violence and the fear it puts into people walking to school, walking to the store in every single neighborhood in our city is immense.”
Andre Bowman leads the pack of punished out-of-state drivers with 135 tickets, totaling more than $36,000 in unpaid fines.
Earl Curtis, with 115 infractions, owes over $27,000.
Leon Carter has 84 tickets and is on the hook for more than $30,000.
“And what we’re going to do is we’re going to go after these scofflaws by holding them accountable,” Schwalb said.
Curtis, one of the men sued, had 82 violations in a single year when he struck a child in Northeast DC.
It happened at Sixth and D streets in September when he swerved around another car and hit a girl named Paisley Brodie.
She broke her foot and spent time at Children’s National Hospital.
Her mother, Diendre Allen, said the impact was devastating.
“Ever since then, we have been dealing with the aftermath of her recovery,” Allen said.
How to fight a speeding ticket
According to a legally reviewed post, there are five effective strategies to fighting a speeding ticket if it was wrongfully issued.
- If pulled over and issued a ticket, drivers can argue or dispute a driver’s personal opinion. When issuing a speeding ticket, an officer is required to write their opinion and come to an “objective” conclusion. If the ticket was written based on that judgment, it can be contested. An example would be if you were going 75 mph in a 65 mph zone because others were traveling at the same speed, you could argue that it would be more dangerous to travel at 65 mph.
- You can dispute the officer’s presentation of evidence. If you were ticketed for something like running a stop sign or making an illegal u-turn, you can’t contest that if an officer saw you, but you can call things into court like eyewitnesses, diagrams, or photos.
- Argue that the ticket was issued by a “mistake of fact.” This is tricky, but a “mistake of fact” is a mistake made by a driver about a situation that was beyond their control, or if a driver legitimately did not know they were violating the law. For example, you were driving in two lanes because the lane markers were so worn down that you could not see them.
- You could say circumstances justified your driving. You could say you were speeding to pass a possibly drunk driver, or avoiding an accident by rapidly changing lanes. However, the argument won’t work if there’s proof you continued to speed after passing.
- Similar to the above, it could be argued that speeding was necessary to avoid harm. The key is to argue that if you weren’t speeding, you or someone else could have been harmed.
- Consult a traffic attorney, if all else fails. Many have free consultations to decide whether or not there’s a case.
Source: FindLaw
Curtis pleaded guilty to reckless driving and served six days in jail.
Allen was shocked to learn he was still on the road after the crash.
“He was on probation when he hit Paisley,” she said.
“Like, why would they allow him to still have his license? Like, he is just out here driving recklessly.”
‘NO RECIPROCITY’
Maryland and Virginia drivers do not face penalties in their home states for unpaid DC tickets.
In 2021, Mayor Muriel Bowser attempted to strike a deal with Maryland and Virginia, offering to have their drivers pay outstanding DC camera tickets or face license suspensions.
However, both governors rejected her proposal, according to CBS local affiliate WUSA.
“I was frankly sick and tired of the fact that we have no reciprocity with Virginia and Maryland,” said DC Councilmember Charles Allen, chair of the District’s Committee on Transportation.
DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by The U.S. Sun.