D.C. Council member Christina Henderson is spearheading a bill that would add points to driver’s licenses for traffic violations caught by the city’s automated enforcement system.
Under the Automated Traffic Effectiveness Amendment Act of 2022 — co-introduced by Henderson (I-At Large), Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1), Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) and Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) — the first infraction within a two-year period results in a warning, and any points imposed from automated enforcement would be waived if vehicle owners complete a traffic safety course.
Henderson said such punitive measures are needed nonetheless.
“We have had a record year in terms of traffic violence across the District,” she said, WTOP reported Monday. “And I feel like we’ve been having this ongoing conversation around ‘How do we get drivers to slow down?’ Speeding, running red lights, and running stop signs threaten the livability of our neighborhoods and compromise the safety of children, pedestrians, bicyclists, and other drivers. If we are going to use automated traffic enforcement, then our automated traffic enforcement laws need to have some teeth to it to change behavior.”
A moving violation in a school zone would result in an additional point, and any parked vehicle found to have five or more unpaid moving violations, no matter what jurisdiction they’re registered in, would be towed or immobilized, WTOP reported.
The bill would also mandate that the registered owner’s insurance company be notified upon five or more infractions issued by automated enforcement.
Henderson said vehicle owners should assume responsibility for their vehicles even when someone else is driving them. She said her bill may have a hearing this fall but will likely not move further due to the workload of the council as Council Period 24 ends on Dec. 31.
I do think this bill would be unfair to those who let others use their cars ,l think the fines are costly but fair to make the person driving to pay the fine.
I am the registered owner of all the cars in my household. Occasionally one of the cars get a ticket. Am I to be punished for these mistakes? This bill is not fair and does not take family situations into consideration.
I expect it is illegal to assign moving violation points to the driver’s license of an individual who is not actually operating the vehicle. The real solution to this real crisis is to have police officers more actively involved in enforcing the law. As I have believe the Post has previously reported, the District is actually doing a poor job in collecting the fines for camera tickets today– let’s fix that first.