Key takeaways: How the DMV permits harmful drivers to remain on the highway

By Robert LewisCalMatters

This story was initially revealed by CalMatters. Enroll for his or her newsletters.

Sergio Olmos.

Ervin Wyatt’s historical past behind the wheel spreads throughout two pages of a latest courtroom submitting: Fleeing police. Fleeing police once more. Working a purple gentle. Inflicting a visitors collision. Driving with out a license, 4 instances. A dozen rushing tickets.

But the California Division of Motor Automobiles issued him a license in 2019. Wyatt promptly received three extra rushing tickets, courtroom information present. Prosecutors say he was rushing once more in 2023 when he misplaced management and crashed into oncoming visitors, killing three girls. He’s now going through homicide fees in Stanislaus County.

The DMV routinely permits drivers like these — with horrifying histories of harmful driving, together with DUIs, crashes and quite a few tickets — to proceed to function on our roadways, a CalMatters investigation has discovered. Too usually they go on to kill. Many maintain driving even after they kill. Some go on to kill once more.

We reviewed vehicular manslaughter circumstances in California from 2019 by means of early 2024 to grasp how the state handles harmful drivers.

The courtroom information and driving histories reveal a state so involved with individuals getting access to motor automobiles for work and life that it permits lethal drivers to share our roads regardless of the price. Officers could name driving a privilege, however they deal with it with no consideration — usually failing to take drivers’ licenses even after they kill somebody on the highway.

Listed here are the important thing takeaways from our investigation:

1. The DMV misses — or ignores — patterns of reckless conduct on the roads that persist for years, failing to cease harmful drivers earlier than they kill.

The state system that targets motorists who rack up tickets is designed to catch clusters of reckless conduct, not long-term patterns.

The state suspends a driver’s license for accumulating 4 factors in a 12 months, six factors in two years or eight factors in three years. What does it take to get that many factors? Utilizing a cellphone whereas driving is zero factors. A rushing ticket is a degree. Vehicular manslaughter is 2 factors.

And whereas there are legal guidelines requiring the DMV to droop a driver’s license for sure crimes, like DUIs, there is no such thing as a such requirement for a lot of vehicular manslaughter convictions.

It’s usually as much as the DMV whether or not to behave. Routinely it doesn’t.

2. Practically 40% of drivers charged with vehicular manslaughter since 2019 have a legitimate license, in line with DMV information.

That’s about 1,000 out of two,600 drivers for whom we obtained DMV studies, drivers like Joshua Daugherty.

In July 2020, Daugherty drifted onto the freeway shoulder whereas driving close to Mammoth Lakes, overcorrected to the left and misplaced management, courtroom filings present. His Toyota Tacoma minimize throughout the lane into oncoming visitors, the place an SUV broadsided it. Daugherty’s girlfriend, 25-year-old Krystal Kazmark, died.

In August 2009, in a strikingly related incident, Daugherty was rushing alongside a Riverside County freeway when his Ford Expedition drifted onto the shoulder. Witnesses advised police he hit a mud embankment and went airborne, the SUV flipping onto its roof. A 16-year-old woman using within the again died.

He was convicted of vehicular manslaughter in each circumstances. The DMV suspended his license after his conviction for killing Kazmark. Nevertheless it wasn’t sufficient to maintain him off the highway. Earlier than he may report back to jail, two months after the conviction, police caught him driving on a suspended license.

The DMV reissued Daugherty a license in July 2024.

3. The DMV usually takes no motion in opposition to drivers convicted of killing somebody on the highway.

State regulation requires the company to strip motorists of their driving privileges for 3 years after a felony vehicular manslaughter conviction. However there is no such thing as a such requirement for many misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter convictions. It’s as much as the DMV whether or not to do something.

We discovered practically 200 drivers with a legitimate license whose DMV report reveals a conviction for misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter however for whom there is no such thing as a suspension listed.

That features truck driver Ramon Pacheco, who made a U-turn in entrance of an oncoming motorbike, killing 29-year-old Dominic Lopez-Toney, who was ending his rotations to be a health care provider.

Court docket information present Pacheco had gotten in bother behind the wheel earlier than. He had been arrested for DUI in 2009, induced a collision in 2013 and received a ticket in 2016 for making an unsafe flip.

Months after San Joaquin prosecutors charged Pacheco with vehicular manslaughter, he received into one other collision for which he was additionally deemed most at fault.

Pacheco in the end pleaded no contest to misdemeanor manslaughter and acquired probation. His DMV report as of Feb. 11 signifies his driving privileges had been by no means suspended; his industrial driver’s license is legitimate.

Within the wake of the tragedy, Lopez-Toney’s mom has grow to be an advocate for truck security.

“Road safety and truck safety is not a priority right now with our legislators, with our government,” Nora Lopez stated. “Changing our mindset, our attitudes, our culture on the roads is not impossible.”

4. The DMV issued licenses to 150 drivers lower than a 12 months after they allegedly killed somebody on the highway.

Prosecutors say Jadon Mendez was rushing in December 2021 in Santa Clara County when he misplaced management and induced a crash that killed a mom of three younger kids. Just a few weeks later, he received a rushing ticket.

And but, the DMV issued him his present driver’s license on Jan. 27, 2022 — 49 days after the deadly crash. Mendez’s manslaughter case remains to be open, and his license remains to be listed as legitimate.

5. Practically 400 of the drivers charged with killing somebody received a ticket or had been in one other collision — or each — after their deadly crash.

That’s about 15% of the drivers for whom we received the DMV studies. Whereas the studies don’t point out whether or not a driver was at fault in a crash, the information do counsel many drivers proceed to drive dangerously even after killing somebody on the highway.

A industrial driver drove his semi truck on the incorrect aspect of the highway into oncoming visitors, killing a motorcyclist in Kern County in 2021. Lower than a 12 months later, he nonetheless had a legitimate license when he barreled his semi into slow-moving visitors, hitting 4 automobiles and killing a girl in Fresno County, information present. One other man, sentenced to 9 years in jail for killing two girls whereas driving drunk, received his privileges restored by the DMV after being paroled, solely to drive excessive on meth in Riverside and weave head-on into one other automotive, killing a girl.

6. Lots of of drivers have vehicular manslaughter or associated convictions that don’t seem in DMV information.

The obvious error means some drivers who ought to have had their driving privileges suspended as an alternative present up in DMV information as having a legitimate license.

Between March 2017 and March 2022, Trevor Prepare dinner acquired two citations for operating purple lights, received two rushing tickets and was deemed liable for two collisions, together with one through which somebody was injured, courtroom information present.

Prepare dinner nonetheless had a legitimate license on April 14, 2022, a month after his final rushing ticket, when he blew by means of a Yolo County cease signal at greater than 100 mph, killing Prajal Bista as he handed by means of the intersection, on his solution to work after dinner and a film along with his spouse, in line with particulars of the crash that prosecutors included in courtroom filings. Bista was driving the velocity restrict and on monitor to make it to work half-hour early.

On March 28, 2024, Prepare dinner pleaded no contest to felony vehicular manslaughter.

The manslaughter conviction — like a whole bunch of others we discovered — isn’t listed on Prepare dinner’s driving report. The DMV issued Prepare dinner his present driver’s license only a month after the conviction, company information present. Lower than two weeks after that, he received a ticket for disobeying a visitors sign.

“It’s stunning to me that eight months later his license is still showing as valid and the conviction for killing someone while driving is not reflected in his driving record,” stated Melinda Aiello, chief deputy district legal professional in Yolo County. “You killed somebody. I’d think there might be some license implications.”

7. The DMV denied our request to debate our findings with Director Steve Gordon.

Gordon as an alternative issued a quick assertion: “The modernization of our systems, including the launch of the Driver Safety Portal, reflects our ongoing commitment to enhancing accountability and transparency while continually refining our processes to ensure California’s roads are safer for everyone.”

Chris Orrock, a DMV spokesperson, stated the company follows the regulation when issuing licenses. “We use our authority as mandated and as necessary,” he stated.

Orrock stated the DMV couldn’t touch upon particular person drivers. However he and company officers did clarify what occurs after a lethal collision, a course of that’s separate from any statutorily required suspensions following a conviction.

When regulation enforcement studies a deadly crash, the company’s driver security department flags all drivers who may be at fault. It then seems into the collision and decides whether or not the company ought to droop these motorists’ driving privileges. If the motive force contests the motion, there’s a listening to that would embody witness testimony. Suspensions are open-ended. Drivers must ask for his or her license again, and company personnel determine whether or not the suspension ought to finish or proceed. These discretionary suspensions usually final for a few 12 months.

And whereas officers stated the DMV can proceed a suspension in the event that they suppose a driver poses a hazard, Orrock stated they should give drivers a chance to get their license again. He stated there’s no course of within the state “to permanently revoke a license.”

That is the primary story in a sequence about how California lets harmful drivers keep on the highway. Join our License to Kill e-newsletter to be notified when the following story comes out, and to get extra behind-the-scenes info from our reporting.

This text was initially revealed on CalMatters and was republished underneath the Inventive Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.