Key takeaways: How the DMV allows dangerous drivers to stay on the road
calmatters.org
A CalMatters investigation finds the DMV routinely allows dangerous drivers with horrifying histories to continue to operate on our roadways.

Ervin Wyatt’s history behind the wheel spreads across two pages of a recent court filing: Fleeing police. Fleeing police again. Running a red light. Causing a traffic collision. Driving without a license, four times. A dozen speeding tickets.

Yet the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued him a license in 2019. Wyatt promptly got three more speeding tickets, court records show. Prosecutors say he was speeding again in 2023 when he lost control and crashed into oncoming traffic, killing three women. He’s now facing murder charges in Stanislaus County.

The DMV routinely allows drivers like these — with horrifying histories of dangerous driving, including DUIs, crashes and numerous tickets — to continue to operate on our roadways, a CalMatters investigation has found. Too often they go on to kill. Many keep driving even after they kill. Some go on to kill again.

  • SparroHawc@lemm.eeEnglish
    5·
    4 days ago

    Part of this is likely to be because with how stupidly car-focused the infrastructure is, revoking someone’s license to drive is essentially revoking someone’s right to autonomy.