Will Licensing Illegal Immigrants Have An Impact On The Problem Of Hit - and - run Accidents?
Hit - and - run accidents are a serious problem in Orange County, Los Angeles, and throughout California, claiming 185 lives and injuring 20, 260 people in the state in 2009, according to the California Highway Patrol’s Statewide Whole-length Traffic Records System. Authorities have suggested that one basis a driver may not endure at the scene to control assistance to someone with whom he or maiden has been involved in a car or other type of traffic accident is the abhorrence of penalties for driving without a license, explains a lawyer. Some proponents of issuing licenses to undocumented immigrants claim that it may reduce their likelihood to dodge the scene of crashes, thereby reducing the digit of hit - and - run accidents in the state.
Under California law, as outlined in Vehicle Code Section 20003, any driver who is involved in a collision with another vehicle resulting in injury to or death of its occupants is required to hindrance and outlast at the scene of the incident. If necessary, the driver is required to manage succour to the occupants of the vehicle, as well as procure them with his or her appellation and current address, vehicle registration, and driver’s license. When drivers fail to sign with these requirements by fleeing the scene of the accident they will be subject to penalties, including imprisonment in state prison, or in county jail for not more than one stint, or by a fine of not less than one thousand dollars, or both.
In recent months, several people have been seriously injured or killed in hit - and - run accidents throughout California. On February 6th, a driver struck a 13 - clock - ancient schoolgirl in a Originator Valley crosswalk, jump off her critically injured in the roadway. On February 8th, a 61 - occasion - ancient man was struck and dragged 150 feet before the vehicle stopped this day to release him, jump off him to die in a Fontana street. On the same day, the driver of a stolen Nissan Maxima struck a mother and her 3 - while - senescent daughter in a crosswalk eventual Anaheim, seriously injuring the woman and gay the child. Thereupon on Sunday, February 12th, two vehicles hit esteemed ballet dancer Zina Bethune in Los Angeles; the driver of the support vehicle did not fence to oversee assistance. According to visculent data reports, authorities have only identified one of the drivers responsible for these collisions.
In symmetry to be eligible for a driver’s license in California, one must commenced a Social Dependence quantity and a strife of homestead in the state, requirements preventing undocumented immigrants from legally driving. Some in the state, including Los Angeles police pre-eminent Charlie Beck, have set stave for issuing licenses to illegal immigrants, claiming that subjecting them to a screening and testing process would not only perk up safety but also authorities’ bent to track these drivers. In addition, Beck has suggested that, in the absence of the threat of penalties for unlicensed driving, undocumented immigrants would be more likely to continue at the scene after accidents.
While issuing licenses to undocumented immigrants has the potential to progress safety by ensuring they are tested on the state’s driving laws, it is difficult to predict the impact it may have on the incidence of hit - and - run car accidents in Orange County, Los Angeles, and elsewhere, explains a lawyer. The threat of penalties for unlicensed driving is likely not the only ground motorists evade the scenes of crashes; they may also aversion the consequences of being sold driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol or in a stolen vehicle, as was the case in the accident near Anaheim.
