Study of the effects of plea bargaining motor vehicle offenses : final report, December 2009.

Details

• Creators:
  Carnegie, Jon A. ; Ozbay, Kaan ; Mudigonda, Sandeep
• Corporate Creators:
  Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center
• Corporate Contributors:
  New Jersey. Department of Transportation. Bureau of Research ; United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Traffic violations
  • Crimes
  • Motor vehicle licensing Traffic violations--New Jersey
  • Plea bargaining--New Jersey
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA NJ-2009-018
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  New Jersey
• Edition:
  Final report.
• Corporate Publisher:
  New Jersey. Dept. of Transportation
• Abstract:
  The objectives of this study were to examine the impact of plea bargaining point-carrying moving violations to zero-point ; offenses on roadway safety in New Jersey and to assess the impact of plea bargaining on New Jersey Motor Vehicle ; Commission (MVC) programs and revenues. For this study the research team conducted a national literature review ; and a scan of current practices used in other states; reviewed New Jersey laws and program guidance related to driver ; monitoring and control and plea bargaining motor vehicle offenses; conducted a series of interviews with personnel ; from the MVC and Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC); analyzed data from the AOC Automated Traffic System ; (ATS) and the MVC driver history database; and, assessed how the practice of plea bargaining may be affecting MVC ; programs and revenues. ; The study finds clear evidence that the practice of plea bargaining point-carrying moving violations to zero-point ; offenses has increased significantly in New Jersey since July 2000. However, the effect of this increase on highway ; safety is not as clear. The overall number of moving violation convictions has not changed significantly since 2000, nor ; has the nature of the violations being committed changed significantly. The study also finds evidence that a small ; minority of habitual offenders appear to be using the system to their advantage and that the number of drivers ; subjected to MVC negligent driver countermeasures has declined by 36 percent since 1999. This diversion of negligent ; drivers out of MVC driver monitoring and control programs appears to be particularly problematic in light of research ; findings from a recently completed study on recidivism among drivers sanctioned by MVC. That study found the ; countermeasures used by MVC to address negligent driving behavior are effective at reducing violation and crash ; recidivism among most negligent driver subgroups. ; The findings of this study combined with the findings and conclusions of the MVC recidivism study suggest a number of ; policy reforms should be considered to ensure that repeat traffic offenders are not able to circumvent driver monitoring ; and control programs through plea bargaining. First, MVC should work with the AOC, the Attorney General’s office and ; other key stakeholders to develop more explicit guidelines regarding the use of plea bargaining to reduce point-carrying ; moving violations to zero-point offenses. Second, MVC should examine the efficacy of transitioning from a point-based ; system of driver monitoring and control to an event-based system that relies on the accumulation of “countable” ; offenses to trigger negligent driver countermeasures. Thirdly, policy makers should consider amending the “unsafe ; operation” statute to limit the use of plea bargaining by any driver to two times.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/17677/dot_17677_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 231.50 KB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5b95ba0d733a38478e071c9e664af8788c4449b2a4d11ef777d9f465de9616d96567aa52bdf150831cfc887bf02c8bc437ca0637bc0300ae4ec9785ae639fd98