By the numbers:
53,839: License suspensions in Clark County in 2015, including drivers with multiple suspensions
19,794: Non-compliance suspensions (no proof of insurance) in 2015
6,299: Suspensions for OVI convictions in Clark County in 2015
2,211: Driving under suspension citations written in 2015 in Clark County
2,136: Driving under suspension citations written through July 2016 in Clark County
The number of drivers in Clark County who get behind the wheel of a car when they’re not supposed to is on the rise.
Citations for driving under suspension handed out by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, Springfield Police Division and the Ohio State Highway Patrol this year are expected to surpass the more than 2,200 filed last year. More than 2,100 have already been filed this year.
Suspended license offenses make up almost 25 percent of the reports Clark County sheriff’s deputies make throughout the year.
“In some research we’ve done, it’s one out of every three drivers that we stop,” Sheriff Gene Kelly said.
More than 8.1 million drivers are licensed in Ohio, according to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and about 3.1 million license suspensions were issued in the state last year, including drivers with multiple suspensions. About 53,800 of those were in Clark County, which also includes some drivers with multiple suspensions.
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Drivers can lose their license for more than 20 reasons, including drunk driving or too many speeding tickets.
But noncompliance suspensions — when a driver or owner fails to show financial responsibility or proof of insurance at the time of a ticket or accident — are also common.
“As long as there’s a car to get into, people are going to get in and drive,” Sgt. Brett Bauer with the Springfield Police Division said.
Dangers on the roadways
Some drivers have their licenses taken away because they are a danger to others on the road.
Nearly 6,300 Clark County drivers had their licenses suspended for OVI convictions last year, according to BMV data. Another 4,050 suspensions were handed out for people who had 12 or more points on their driving records.
“We have a high percentage of people involved in serious crashes that are under suspension,” Bauer said.
Kayla Mongold, 12, was struck and killed in 2012 by a driver who didn’t have a valid license.
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In February, 55-year-old Lewis Chambers of Springfield was sent to prison for 12 and a half years. Chambers killed 65-year-old Richard Gruber of Mad River Twp. and his granddaughter Sophia Gruber, 12, in a 2014 drunken driving crash.
He was driving on a suspended license and had a blood-alcohol level almost three times the legal limit.
Chambers had been driving illegally for more than a decade, according to court records.
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“People are under suspensions for reasons,” Bauer said. “A lot of times they’re suspensions that have to deal with OVI or multiple points on their license,” that can be dangers to other drivers on the roads, he said.
Brinda Gruber, Richard Gruber’s wife, and another granddaughter survived the crash.
“Your biggest punishment should be knowing and feeling the tears and pain you’ve brought upon my family and your own,” she told Chambers during his sentencing.
A non-criminal penalty
For thousands of drivers in Clark County, though, their licenses have been suspended for other reasons.
Casey McDaniel, 30, lost her license earlier this year. McDaniel said she had insurance to cover a 2015 crash, but claims she never got letters the BMV sent her requesting proof of insurance.
So when McDaniel didn’t reply, the state suspended her license.
“You have no clue until you get pulled over,” she said.
McDaniel was charged in March with driving under suspension. She was one of nearly 19,800 non-compliance suspensions handed down in 2015 in Clark County.
People whose licenses are suspended for dangerous reasons, McDaniel said, such as OVI or reckless driving, should have their driving rights taken away.
But such a penalty against non-criminal drivers just adds to the cycle of crime and poverty on communities like Clark County, experts said.
That’s why lawmakers made some changes to the system this year. Previously many drug convictions had a mandatory license suspension of at least six months, but a new law leaves that decision up to a judge.
In recent years lawmakers have also changed sending suspended drivers to local jails once they are caught behind the wheel.
“If we put all the people who technically could go to jail for driving under suspension, the criminal justice system of Ohio couldn’t handle it,” Kelly said.
In one night in Clark County recently, the sheriff said, 33 people were pulled over for driving under suspension. The Clark County Jail couldn’t handle that kind of influx, Kelly said.
McDaniel was cited with her second DUS in May. She said driving illegally isn’t something she is proud of, but is something as a single mother she had to do.
“I don’t like to break the law, but I wasn’t running from the cops, I wasn’t driving drunk,” she said she was going to the grocery store to buy food for her 2-year-old daughter.
Breaking the cycle
Transportation — or lack of it — is one of the biggest issues the Clark County community faces to getting people out of a cycle of poverty and crime, re-entry leaders said.
Hundreds of people going through the Opportunities for a New Direction criminal re-entry program are compliant with state laws and could get their licenses back, but they owe hundreds or thousands of dollars in fees they can’t afford, said Brad Andringa, re-entry coordinator for the Re-Entry Coalition of Clark County.
The coalition is a partnership between local law enforcement, county commissioners, OIC of Clark County and mental health services across Clark County.
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Of the 402 people who went through New Directions in 2015, more than half had a suspended license.
“They can’t afford (to get their license back) because they can’t get a job to drive to their work, so what they’re going to do is drive illegally in order to get the funds to pay it back,” he said.
McDaniel said that is exactly something she has done — driven with a suspended license to get to court-mandated community service for her suspended license conviction. If she didn’t get to the appointment, she said, she feared a judge would put her in jail for not completing her work.
The state recently started a program so drivers can pay monthly to get their license back.
But again, when it comes to money people must have jobs to pay fines, Andringa said.
“My life is on hold for the next two years because until I can get my license back, what can I do?” McDaniel said.
She’s looking for a job and wants to start a career so she can provide for her daughter. But her lack of transportation hinders her.
She had an interview for a company in Dayton, McDaniel said.
“The day I was supposed to go, I couldn’t find a ride and couldn’t drive, so I missed the interview,” she said.
Suspensions are needed to keep dangerous drivers off the roads, Bauer said.
But no one can predict who will be a danger and who won’t, he said.
“If we had a better predictor for who really was going to go out there and hurt someone or kill someone, it would be easier for the legislature to create laws,” Bauer said.
McDaniel wishes the suspensions didn’t hurt people like herself, she said, who aren’t dangerous and only trying to make a better life for themselves.
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