Internal memo reveals plan for driving bans
The Ontario government apparently believes it has overcome computer kinks holding up a much-ballyhooed crackdown on near drunk drivers. A senior government official recently distributed an internal document [read it after the jump] to police forces across the province explaining how suspensions will be recorded on driver records. It means roadside information from police has to quickly and accurately get into computers at the Ministry of Transportation, where driver records are kept. That might not be so easy, given that this is a ministry that has, in the past, given new drivers licences to killer drunk drivers who've been banned from driving for life.
Starting May 1, 2009, in Ontario, anyone with a blood alcohol level between 0.05 and 0.08 will face stiffer penalties. The province actually passed the law early in 2007. Police were supposed to be enforcing it during the holiday spot check campaign in December 2008, but there were some major computer headaches figuring out how to make it work (though the province didn't talk publicly about those problems). The changes – documented in the internal document above – involve a newfangled Internet-based reporting system that allows police to enter the suspension info directly from cruiser computers. Unfortunately, not every police department has the technology. The Luddites will have to fax suspension info to the MTO. That suggests, although the internal document doesn't address it, that a driver record wouldn't show the suspension if there's a delay in an officer getting back to the station and sending his or her fax.
The system also relies on some automatic data entry by computers. Police officers fill in some basic info, then the system will "auto populate the remaining data." Can we trust the MTO computers, or their human overseers, to get it right? A recent high-profile case in Kingston doesn't engender confidence.
The Ministry issued a driver's licence several years ago to ex-convict Kevin John Scott after he was released from prison. Problem was, Scott was banned for life from driving, a penalty imposed after he killed four people in a horrific late night drunk driving crash Nov. 22, 1998. Scott was behind the wheel of a stolen Firebird, with a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit. He barrelled along a darkened county road just north of Kingston, forcing other cars off the road, until he collided head on with a car carrying six members of a family. The impact killed Christopher Kilminster, a 26-year-old father, his sons, aged five and four, and their 14-year-old female cousin. Kilminster's wife and two-year-old son were hurt. Scott had never been licensed to drive. Pulled from the wreck by firefighters, he said: "I don't care if anyone is dead."
He was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and banned for life from driving. After serving two thirds of his sentence, he was freed and sometime soon after, he applied for a licence. Scott didn't con the ministry. Turned out that one digit in his birthdate was incorrect in the record sent to MTO after his conviction for the 1998 crash. Because of that, the ex-con Kevin Scott who applied for a licence didn't match any banned drivers in the MTO database. He got a licence, and he got away with it, until a suspicious Kingston Police officer scanned the licence after pulling Scott over in May 2008. Scott had a G2 beginner licence, yet he was 41 years old. The officer dug some more and found the record of a banned driver named Kevin Scott, with a birthdate one digit off from the driver in front of him. When the officer challenged Scott, he fessed up.
In June 2008, Scott was sentenced to 15 months behind bars for driving while disqualified.
The Ministry of Transportation insists there is no flaw in the licence records system - a system that is getting more complex with the addition of new suspension information being fed directly by police officers.
Kevin Scott likely will be released from prison May 28, 2009.
Related posts:
The law that can't be broken
How much tougher can it get
Starting May 1, 2009, in Ontario, anyone with a blood alcohol level between 0.05 and 0.08 will face stiffer penalties. The province actually passed the law early in 2007. Police were supposed to be enforcing it during the holiday spot check campaign in December 2008, but there were some major computer headaches figuring out how to make it work (though the province didn't talk publicly about those problems). The changes – documented in the internal document above – involve a newfangled Internet-based reporting system that allows police to enter the suspension info directly from cruiser computers. Unfortunately, not every police department has the technology. The Luddites will have to fax suspension info to the MTO. That suggests, although the internal document doesn't address it, that a driver record wouldn't show the suspension if there's a delay in an officer getting back to the station and sending his or her fax.
The system also relies on some automatic data entry by computers. Police officers fill in some basic info, then the system will "auto populate the remaining data." Can we trust the MTO computers, or their human overseers, to get it right? A recent high-profile case in Kingston doesn't engender confidence.
The Ministry issued a driver's licence several years ago to ex-convict Kevin John Scott after he was released from prison. Problem was, Scott was banned for life from driving, a penalty imposed after he killed four people in a horrific late night drunk driving crash Nov. 22, 1998. Scott was behind the wheel of a stolen Firebird, with a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit. He barrelled along a darkened county road just north of Kingston, forcing other cars off the road, until he collided head on with a car carrying six members of a family. The impact killed Christopher Kilminster, a 26-year-old father, his sons, aged five and four, and their 14-year-old female cousin. Kilminster's wife and two-year-old son were hurt. Scott had never been licensed to drive. Pulled from the wreck by firefighters, he said: "I don't care if anyone is dead."
He was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and banned for life from driving. After serving two thirds of his sentence, he was freed and sometime soon after, he applied for a licence. Scott didn't con the ministry. Turned out that one digit in his birthdate was incorrect in the record sent to MTO after his conviction for the 1998 crash. Because of that, the ex-con Kevin Scott who applied for a licence didn't match any banned drivers in the MTO database. He got a licence, and he got away with it, until a suspicious Kingston Police officer scanned the licence after pulling Scott over in May 2008. Scott had a G2 beginner licence, yet he was 41 years old. The officer dug some more and found the record of a banned driver named Kevin Scott, with a birthdate one digit off from the driver in front of him. When the officer challenged Scott, he fessed up.
In June 2008, Scott was sentenced to 15 months behind bars for driving while disqualified.
The Ministry of Transportation insists there is no flaw in the licence records system - a system that is getting more complex with the addition of new suspension information being fed directly by police officers.
Kevin Scott likely will be released from prison May 28, 2009.
Related posts:
The law that can't be broken
How much tougher can it get
Labels: fatal crashes, impaired driving, Kevin Scott, MTO, near-drunk suspensions
Read it all
posted at 9:08 PM PERMALINK
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home