Hey, there! Log in / Register
State Police: Cruiser with OUI suspect inside hit by driver with suspended license
By adamg on Wed, 10/07/2015 - 11:06am
State Police report a woman with a suspended license drove into a cruiser in Kosciuszko Circle around 2:30 a.m.
State Police say a trooper was transporting an OUI suspect to the nearby South Boston barracks for booking at the time of the collision.
The suspect was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, State Police say, adding neither the trooper nor the other driver were injured. The woman will be cited for operating with a suspended license, however.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Driving while drunk, hitting
Driving while drunk, hitting a cop car, driving with a suspended license: Just another day in the city with the worst drivers in America.
http://fortune.com/2015/09/02/allstate-says-boston-drivers-are-the-worst/
License suspension means nothing
Your driver's license can be suspended for all sorts of things that have nothing to do with operating a motor vehicle badly or unlawfully, or failing to pay traffic fines. In some states, your license can be suspended if you owe the state or any county or municipality thereof money--in some cases, theoretically, for owing library fines, although I don't know that that's ever been imposed. (I have a whole rant about this that I won't post here.)
Also, read the article carefully--the woman with the suspended license who struck the cruiser was not cited for OUI, nor was her license suspended due to an OUI offense (as far as we know)--the man in the back of the cruiser was an OUI suspect.
That's the fun part
Licenses are suspended for administrative reasons all the time - unpaid tickets, failing to remember that one's birthday is the deadline, etc.
Try to get your impaired neighbor, relative, spouse or even patient off the road? Bwahahahahaha!
Re: SwirlyGrrl: Licenses are not suspended for failing to renew
Although your license may expire on your birthday if you forget to renew it, your license will not be suspended it will merely expire. Although driving with an expired license is technically arrestable under Ch. 90 S. 10 for being "not duly licensed" it is not the same as being suspended or revoked Ch. 90 S. 23. Most officers will accept the "I forgot to renew on my birthday" excuse and decline to arrest if it's within a reasonable time period. Conversely, Suspended/Revoked is almost always an arrest, especially for the MSP. You cannot be suspended/revoked for library books or parking tickets, merely placed in a non-renewable status until fines are paid. In fact, I've never heard of library books being a reason for a non-renewable status but as for parking tickets, it's about the only way a city/town has of collecting overdue fines.
Good point
That would be an expired license, my bad.
The larger point, however, stands: a suspended license usually has to do with administrative problems, not "shouldn't be driving" problems. MA has a real problem with failing to provide mechanisms for license revocation based on inability or impairment. When doctors cannot even pull the driving licenses of people with serious dementia, something is very wrong.
Police Departments should have this form.
If you tell a police officer that a family member should not be driving (because they have a medical issue, or if they are just reckless/negilegent), the officer can and should fill out a form and this form goes to the registry and in my experience, the RMV suspends the right to operate 100% of the time. The driver must be notified in person of this suspension however, and the police department will sometimes deliver it.
And/or you can do it yourself:
https://www.massrmv.com/rmv/medical/reporting.htm
When the Medical Affairs Branch receives a report that a licensed driver may be unfit to operate a motor vehicle due to an alleged physical or mental condition, Medical Affairs shall conduct an individualized assessment of the reported individual's qualifications to operate a motor vehicle safely. Medical Affairs shall initiate such assessment by requesting that the reported individual submit a medical evaluation from his or her health care provider which addresses the individual's reported condition and medical qualifications to operate a motor vehicle safely. Medical Affairs shall then take any appropriate licensing actions, in consideration of the health care provider's evaluation.
The Registry seeks an expert opinion from the individual's health care provider because the health care provider is the person best qualified to respond to questions regarding the individual's medical condition and its potential implications on the ability to operate a motor vehicle safely. In appropriate circumstances and in consideration of the health care provider's recommendations, the Registry will assess the individual's ability to operate a motor vehicle by requiring that the individual undergo a competency road examination and/or an assessment for adaptive equipment and appropriate license restrictions, prior to taking a licensing action.
In instances where the Registry has conflicting medical information concerning a Licensee's medical condition, the Registry shall accept as true the information supplied by the licensed medical physician. When there is conflicting information between two physicians, the Registry shall accept as true the information supplied by the physician specializing in the particular field of medicine addressing the licensee's reported condition.
Please note: While the Registry is in the process of evaluating a reported individual's competency to operate a motor vehicle safely, the individual will have an activity hold entered on the license record. This activity hold will prevent the issuance of a learner's permit or new license to the individual until the evaluation has been concluded
Regardless of what it is
Regardless of what it is suspended for she still was illegally operating a vehicle and then hit a cop car. And yes, the other person had the OUI. Two dangerous drivers who should be off the road.
Not necessarily "dangerous driver"
I think the point that may have been missed here, is that having a suspended license is not evidence that one is a bad or dangerous driver.
I submit, however
...that crashing into a police car is, if not hard evidence, at least a sign.
That depends
If the cruiser did not have lights and sirens on and the officer failed to yield right of way (or otherwise caused the accident), then it just means that they had bad luck.
location
Couldn't think of a more appropriate place where this could happen. They should just call it Vicious Circle.
State Police actually called it "Columbia Circle"
Wasn't there a brief period when it was renamed Walesa Circle?
The bridge to Morrissey Blvd is Walesa Bridge
And the onetime comptroller, who filed legislation to get the bridge, rotary, overpass, and skyway named after Polish heroes refused to give disbursements to anything where the paperwork was for "Columbia Circle"