Traffic Violator School Dismissals: The Effects of Citation Masking on Accident-Risk Assessment and on the Volume of Department of Motor Vehicles' License Control Actions

摘要

SB 1455, enacted on January 1, 1983, required that California courts report traffic violator school (TVS) dismissals to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for research purposes only. Dismissals were not to be reported to any persons or agencies other than the courts. The report is the product of an investigation into the effects of TVS citation masking on accident-risk assessment and on DMV license control actions. A total sample of 158,780 subjects was randomly selected from three sources: (1) drivers assigned to TVS; (2) drivers who received DMV negligent-operator (neg-op) treatments; and, (3) drivers representative of the California driving population. Demographic and driver record data are presented for each group. The analyses indicated that the loss in prior driver record data when TVS citations are dismissed and masked, results in a substantial underestimate of the accident rate of TVS subjects. The results also indicated that a TVS dismissal was significantly more predictive of future accidents than was an additional conviction and that approximately 24,000 level 3 and 10,000 level 4 DMV negligent-operator interventions (normally probations and suspensions, respectively) were circumvented over a 3-year period because of TVS dismissals. It is recommended that legislation be enacted to abolish or greatly restrict the use of TVS citation dismissals.