In Ohio, 12.4% drive without licenses

In Ohio, 12.4% drive without licenses

DAYTON (AP) — More than one of every 10 Ohio drivers has a suspended license. But many still drive. And when they get caught, they land in one of the state’s 128 municipal courts, where roughly half the cases are related to traffic offenses.

The rise in traffic cases is keeping police busy, crowding jails, swamping courts and chewing up public defender attorney time.

According to the Dayton Daily News, 929,804 of the state’s 7.5 million drivers — or 12.4 percent — have suspended licenses.

For thousands of suspended drivers, getting a valid license is out of reach because they owe so much money in fines, court costs and reinstatement fees.

Dayton Municipal Court Magistrate Chris Roberts said it’s not unusual to see someone with 50 prior convictions, 30 suspensions and $10,000 in reinstatement fees.

Last year, the Montgomery County Public Defender’s office handled 19,000 misdemeanor cases, and 65 percent to 70 percent were traffic related.

Statewide, the public defender system dealt with 400,000 cases, of which 197,000 were misdemeanors. Of the misdemeanors, about half were traffic offenses.

Montgomery County Public Defender Glen Dewar said at one time there were only three or four main ways to lose your license: drunken driving, street racing and hit-and-run.

“Now there’s like 46 ways to lose your license,” he said.

Some people lose their license for offenses that are unrelated to bad driving, such as failing to pay child support or possession of marijuana. Courts can suspend teenagers’ driver’s licenses if they drop out of high school or use tobacco.

“In my opinion, we ought to take a long look at this list and remove many of these from the criminal code,” Ohio Public Defender Tim Young said.

In addition, the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles blocks drivers’ ability to renew their licenses or register vehicles if they have a warrant out for their arrest.