Making convicted drunk drivers use a special licence plate might be satisfying, in a Scarlet Letter sort of way, but it would create more problems than it would solve.
Prince Edward Island’s transportation minister has been musing for months about requiring convicted drivers to obtain a special licence plate. Robert Vessey is looking for ways to bring down P.E.I.’s drunk-driving rate, which is twice the national average.
In B.C., drinking drivers face a variety of consequences that are more likely to be effective than posting a notice on a vehicle.
The licence-plate idea has been tried in other places. In Minnesota, if a person receives more than two impaired-driving convictions in a 10-year period, that person’s licence plates may be revoked and replaced with plates that contain the letter W.
Ohio began to issue special plates in 1967 to drunk-driving offenders who were granted limited driving privileges such as driving to work. Judges rarely enforced use of the plates, so in 2004, state legislators made the use of the highly visible plates mandatory for those with a blood-alcohol content of more than .17 or for repeat offenders.
Other states have dallied with the idea, and legislation is in the works in several of those states. In a pilot program in Oregon, a special sticker was placed on a licence plate at the time of the offence to indicate the owner was charged or convicted of driving while impaired. The pilot program ended in 1994.
There’s logic to the proposal. After all, novice drivers in B.C. are identified with the large N sticker on the back of a vehicle, and certain restrictions come with the designation. If a less-experienced driver can be so designated, why not a habitual drunk driver?
The shame factor might work in P.E.I., where about 140,000 people live in an area of 5,700 square kilometres, less than 18 per cent of the area of Vancouver Island, and where a significant percentage of people know each other. It’s less likely to work in a larger area with a bigger population.
If public embarrassment would help keep drunk drivers off the road, we would support the idea, but shame isn’t usually on a person’s mind when he or she has too much drink and gets behind the steering wheel. They don’t think: “Wait a sec. If I drive when I’m plastered, I might have to put a bright orange plate on my car, and then won’t I be embarrassed! Nope, better call a cab.” People who drink and drive either are too drunk to think it through, or don’t think they are drunk at all.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, an organization always eager to find ways to keep drunk drivers off the road, hasn’t found any evidence that special licence plates are an effective preventive measure.
The special plates could alert police to the presence of a habitual drunk driver, but courts would not likely see that as reasonable grounds for stopping a driver. It presumes guilt based on past behaviour rather than current actions.
The proposal would cause pain to innocent parties. Imagine children being taken to school in a car with brightly coloured plates signifying a parent as a convicted drunk driver. A spouse, perhaps already bearing the burden of a drinker in the house, would be further hurt if the family car were tagged.
And some convicted drunk drivers will drive friends’ vehicles, or those of their employers.
Drivers who drink already face a formidable array of punishments and consequences in B.C. Better to put resources into making those measures work than trying to implement one that attempts to use embarrassment for punishment.
