North Carolina Law Fails to Keep Revoked License Drivers Off Road

A 23-year-old in Raleigh, North Carolina was killed in a car accident in October 2016, and his mother claims that his death didn’t have to happen.

The other driver ran a red light and slammed into the young man’s car. The at-fault driver had a suspended driver’s license, but he was still driving.

It is a problem that happens frequently in North Carolina due to what some say are lax laws.

State statistics reveal that 100,000 drivers per year have their driver’s licenses revoked in North Carolina annually. In 2016, 131,000 people were charged with driving with a revoked license. The driver who hit the 23-year-old in Raliegh was one of several people in that city who had been charged with driving on a revoked license after they had caused death, injury or damage in a car accident.

For example, three people died in a Raliegh drunk driving crash last year, with the driver in that vehicle driving on a suspended license. 

There is plenty of debate about how to fix the problem. The mother of the 23-year-old who died has contended that North Carolina legislators need to have tougher laws to prevent people from driving on revoked or suspended driver’s licenses.

However, North Carolina has actually decreased penalties in recent years for driving without a license, as long as it was not taken away for DWI.

In past years, driving without a driver’s license was a moving violation. This means that every time you are pulled over and found to be driving without a license, the new charge put more time on the clock before you could get the license back.

Opponents of this law said that it could lead to permanent revocation for some people who didn’t deserve it.

Now however, there is support in the state legislature to make penalties tougher. A Republican in the state legislature recently filed legislation that would allow for a vehicle to be towed when the driver is caught driving on a revoked license. The bill did not get out of committee, but there is hope that something may pass in the future.

Our View

Our Virginia and North Carolina personal injury attorneys hope that North Carolina passes tougher laws soon so that people with a revoked driver’s license will think twice before driving. We have seen too many people injured or killed in car accidents due to the negligence of driver’s without a driver’s license.

Negligent driving is more likely among those with a revoked license, and this often leads to death, injury, and major personal injury lawsuits.