The City’s New Fee for Recklessness

In their quest to raise new revenues, the state and its localities often cast their collective eye toward a public service that could be taxed. The meals tax and entertainment tax fall into that category. Neither is particularly popular (are any taxes or fees?), but most residents have accepted them as a necessary method of raising revenues to maintain services provided by the government.

Last week, City Council approved a new fee that has the potential of raising additional revenues. But unlike most fees or taxes, this one could prove to be more popular than the others.

This new fee makes great sense — and it could prove to be an incentive for safer driving.

The fee will make it easier for authorities to seek restitution from drivers who cause accidents in the city. It will only apply to drivers convicted of certain charges, such as driving under the influence of alcohol or reckless driving. But it could be extended to other charges eventually.

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Under a new law approved by the last General Assembly, localities can approve a measure that would allow public safety officers to recoup the cost of responding to a wreck. A judge can make restitution one of the requirements of the guilty driver’s traffic sentence.

In the past, the only way to recover those expenses was for the locality to file a civil action against the driver who caused the crash. Local emergency responders do not typically exercise that power because of the burden involved in going through a separate civil trial.

Officials say the newer approach will allow the city to make greater use of the existing restitution clause.

How will it work?

Under the law, which will become effective Nov. 1 as part of the city code, police and emergency responders have the option of charging a flat fee of $250 or seeking as much as $1,000 for each incident provided they compile a detailed, minute-by-minute accounting of their expenses.

Police Chief Parks Snead said his department will most likely stick with the flat fee of $250. The added fines will apply to drivers involved in an accident who are convicted of driving under the influence, reckless driving, driving without a proper license or leaving the scene of an accident.

City officials also added an additional restriction that says both the police and fire or EMS departments must respond to an accident in order for it to qualify for imposition of the restitution fee.

And how much money will this new law generate for the city treasury? Officials have said it is difficult to predict. But the police department has tentatively projected it will raise $20,000 a year in DUI convictions alone.

So beginning Nov. 1, the fools who drive on city streets and who cause wrecks will get to pay for a portion of the cost of the police and emergency medical services they required.

There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, the new law could amount to an incentive for some of those drivers to be a little more careful on the roads.

That would benefit everyone.