Will Licensing Illegal Immigrants Have An Impact On The Problem Of Hit - and - run Accidents?

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 Integral Traffic Records System. Authorities have suggested that one ground a driver may not go on at the scene to oversee aid to someone with whom he or lady has been involved in a car or other type of traffic accident is the nightmare 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 evade the scene of crashes, thereby reducing the quantity 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 stay at the scene of the incident. If necessary, the driver is required to control help to the occupants of the vehicle, as well as accommodate them with his or her signature and current address, vehicle registration, and driver’s license. When drivers fail to shake on 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 instance, 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 - extent - old cutie in a Origin Valley crosswalk, bow her critically injured in the roadway. On February 8th, a 61 - lastingness - old man was struck and dragged 150 feet before the vehicle stopped at once to release him, inception him to die in a Fontana street. On the same day, the driver of a stolen Nissan Maxima struck a mother and her 3 - bit - aged daughter in a crosswalk prospective Anaheim, seriously injuring the woman and for grins the child. Therefrom on Sunday, February 12th, two vehicles hit acclaimed ballet dancer Zina Bethune in Los Angeles; the driver of the sustain vehicle did not fence to administer succour. According to verdant facts reports, authorities have only identified one of the drivers responsible for these collisions.
In tidiness to be eligible for a driver’s license in California, one must going on a Social Sanguineness numeral and a training of box in the state, requirements preventing undocumented immigrants from legally driving. Some in the state, including Los Angeles police ace Charlie Beck, have specific hold for issuing licenses to illegal immigrants, claiming that subjecting them to a screening and testing process would not only set right safety but also authorities’ resourcefulness 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 linger at the scene after accidents.
While issuing licenses to undocumented immigrants has the potential to augment safety by ensuring they are tested on the state’s driving laws, it is laborious 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 inducement motorists duck the scenes of crashes; they may also cold sweat the consequences of being partial driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol or in a stolen vehicle, as was the case in the accident near Anaheim.