Hundreds of motorists in D.C. have been repeatedly caught speeding and running red lights, racking up thousands of dollars in fines they do not pay, according to public records that demonstrate the city’s inability to bring high-risk drivers to account.
More than 2,100 vehicles have at least 40 outstanding tickets, according to data from the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles, and about 1,200 cars are linked to fines exceeding $20,000 over the past five years. Topping the list of offenders is a car with Maryland tags that has 339 outstanding tickets worth $186,000 in fines and penalties.
In all, more than 6.2 million traffic tickets totaling nearly $1.3 billion in fines and penalties have not been paid to D.C. since Jan. 1, 2000.
A March crash that killed three people on Rock Creek Parkway highlighted the threat that dangerous drivers, and particularly those with repeated offenses, pose to other road users. D.C. officials say fines — mostly issued by traffic cameras — are the city’s top enforcement tool, but despite a robust automated traffic enforcement system that issues fines of up to $500 for speeding, a Washington Post analysis of DMV data found that thousands of drivers simply ignore the tickets.
After ticketing, D.C.’s options to go after scofflaws are limited to vehicle booting and towing on public roads, part of a system that was not created to target repeat offenders. As a result, traffic violators can evade consequences for years.
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In the wee hours of March 15, the driver of an SUV fleeing a traffic stop collided with a sedan, killing its occupants — a 42-year-old Lyft driver and two men, ages 22 and 23, on their way home from a night out in D.C. According to city records, as of late April, the SUV had 49 outstanding tickets with fines totaling $17,280. The records are linked to violations involving the vehicle, rather than a specific driver.
“D.C. had data showing that this driver was an extreme risk to life and welfare,” said Ryan Calder, an assistant professor of environmental health and policy at Virginia Tech who studies traffic collisions and helped draft a petition that calls on the city to remove dangerous drivers from roads. “And then, very predictably, the driver of the car annihilated three people in a horrific collision. And that was the very predictable outcome of this breakdown in governance.”
The crash spurred outrage, with the victims’ relatives asking why D.C. authorities had not done more to keep the SUV and its driver off the streets. More than a month later, little is known publicly about who was operating the SUV when it crashed, and no charges have been filed. U.S. Park Police have said only that the vehicle was occupied by a man and woman who were taken to hospitals after the crash.
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The three deaths are among 19 traffic fatalities so far this year on city streets — a 36 percent increase from the same time last year.
DMV Director Gabriel Robinson said that about 30 percent of D.C. traffic tickets are not paid and that the city has limited tools to enforce some categories of traffic violations, particularly those issued as part of the camera enforcement program. Most of the unpaid fines — except for a small share resulting from police stops — are linked to vehicles rather than drivers because D.C. traffic cameras, as in many other jurisdictions, do not take pictures of a car’s occupants.
Vehicles can rack up fines over years — which the car’s owner is responsible for paying — but the person or people driving those cars can keep their licenses if they do not pay.
Since 2000, more than 3 million photo-issued tickets have gone unpaid in the city for a total of $840.8 million, which includes a doubling of original fines and a 20 percent collection fee applied to outstanding tickets. An additional 2.9 million parking tickets also have gone unpaid, for an extra $398 million in fines and penalties, DMV records show.
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Robinson said his agency focuses on education and regularly hears from drivers facing thousands of dollars in outstanding fines who are trying to settle the debt.
“The system is built and designed that there is an opportunity to be caught, and the city does do efforts and activities to catch them, and eventually we do,” he said. “I wouldn’t use the term that ‘they’re just getting away with it.’ It is ‘we haven’t caught them yet.’”
About 38,000 vehicles with D.C., Maryland or Virginia plates have two or more unpaid parking or traffic tickets that are at least 60 days old, making those vehicles eligible to be booted on D.C. streets, according to data on tickets issued in the past five years. Roughly 13,400 vehicles have accumulated more than $5,000 in camera-issued tickets.
In the case of the deadly Rock Creek Parkway crash, Park Police said the traffic stop that preceded the collision was for a speeding violation that an officer had observed. At the time, the SUV had more than 40 outstanding traffic tickets with fines totaling $12,300. The Washington Post used TV news footage of the license plate to link the vehicle to the outstanding tickets. Most of the violations, listed on the DMV website, were for speeding. At least six citations since late October 2022 were for driving at least 25 mph over the speed limit.
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City records updated after the crash show the vehicle has accumulated an additional $4,980 in fines, making for a total debt of $17,280. Some of the unpaid penalties appear to have increased after the crash, most likely because of late fees, but more than $2,000 of the new penalties are from speeding tickets on the day of the crash.
The DMV data shows the SUV was caught on camera that day driving at least 25 mph over the speed limit in two locations east of the Anacostia River about 2½ miles apart. The records do not list the time of the violations.
Prosecutors must determine whether the crash involved a crime. If authorities decide, on the basis of the facts of the case, that the collision was an accident, the driver can avoid criminal charges. But if they opt to press charges, a count of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter or negligent homicide could lead to decades in prison.
The family of the Lyft driver killed in the crash, Mohamed Kamara, said Park Police officers told them to expect at least a three-month wait before charges are filed to allow investigators to process evidence and complete a reconstruction of the crash.
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“The system has already failed by the fact that they were still driving that car when they had so many violations,” said Mohamed Fofana, Kamara’s brother-in-law. “But, hopefully, the investigation and the court system will hold that person accountable. I don’t mind waiting as long as at the end of the day, justice is served.”
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to provide an update on the status of the investigation, saying the case is active.
Lucinda M. Babers, D.C.’s deputy mayor for operations and infrastructure, said she could not comment on the crash, citing the ongoing investigation, but acknowledged a problem with frequent offenders in the District.
“We are always looking for ways to do the enforcement,” Babers said. “Issuing the tickets is the actual enforcement.”
The challenge is getting people to pay the fines and, more important, she said, to change their behavior. She said the traffic camera system helps to deter bad behavior but added that the city’s 136 cameras are not enough to send a stronger message to lawbreakers.
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Of the 200 vehicles with the most fines caught by traffic cameras since Jan. 1, 2018, nearly half involved cars with Maryland plates, just over a third had Virginia plates, and 10 percent were registered in D.C. A review of citation records showed that traveling 25 mph over the limit — which prompts a fine of $500 — was common among offenders.
The D.C. Department of Transportation is expected to deploy more cameras in major commuter corridors this summer. Babers also said the city is considering more outreach and education for drivers — particularly those with a record of infractions. At the same time, the District is pursuing reciprocity agreements with Maryland and Virginia in hopes of bringing consequences to drivers in those states who violate traffic laws in the city.
Under such agreements, registrations and driver’s licenses of Maryland and Virginia drivers could be suspended if D.C. traffic fines reach a certain threshold. The states would receive a percentage of the fines recovered. Those negotiations have stalled in recent years.
For now, the city relies on booting and towing vehicles in hopes that drivers will pay their ticket debts to recover their vehicle. But with only four crews assigned to booting, officials said it is impossible to target high-risk drivers because city workers do not know their locations. Babers said it is likely that offenders “are aware that we boot and tow so they may then park the vehicle in a garage or on private property,” which is off-limits to city crews.
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D.C. police spokesman Hugh Carew said police do not have access to driving records when they make a traffic stop, nor do they keep a list of license plates linked to people with bad driving records.
Still, the DMV can prevent a D.C. vehicle owner with ticket debt from renewing the vehicle’s registration, but as of early this year, it no longer can bar a person from renewing a driver’s license. The city also had power years ago to suspend licenses of people fined for moving violations and could refer drivers with ticket debts to credit reporting agencies, affecting their ability to obtain credit until they settled the debts.
“Those tools are slowly being taken away, to the point where the booting and towing” are the only available enforcement options, Babers said. Some of those measures were removed amid concerns that fines inequitably hurt low-income residents.
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In response to the Rock Creek Parkway crash, road safety advocates and civic groups created a petition urging the city to adopt policies to reduce traffic risks they say disproportionately affect lower-income and Black communities. Among their recommendations: crack down on fake plates, pursue reciprocity with Maryland and Virginia, use traffic camera data to identify drivers who pose the greatest risks, and create a system that targets cars with repeated offenses for booting and impoundment.
Northeast Washington resident Christy Kwan, who has spent years advocating safer streets, said the city should do more to target drivers who repeatedly disregard the safety of other road users.
“It’s absolutely painful to hear about fatal crashes and how, in many cases, the striking driver had an egregious amount of moving violations,” she said. “Driving is an absolute privilege, and is not a right. And reckless drivers need to be held accountable.”
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