Missouri Bicycle News

drivers [with suspended or revoked licenses] cause a disproportionate number of Kansas City’s fatal accidents, an investigation by The Kansas City Star has found, and not enough is being done to stop them.

In a recent 20-month period, improperly licensed drivers were involved in a third of the city’s fatal wrecks, The Star found. Most of the time, those drivers were the ones at fault.

The risk to innocent motorists is second only to the threat of being hit by a drunken driver, national experts say. Yet the public does not recognize the danger, said Robert Scopatz, a researcher who in 2003 helped produce a national report on the problem.

“It’s definitely not on people’s radar, and it should be,” Scopatz said.

Vinzant, McCant and Scarlett were among 24 drivers with revoked or suspended licenses who caused wrecks that killed themselves or others, The Star found after analyzing 110 crashes from January 2005 through August 2006.

Overall, the wrecks killed 116 people. Forty-nine were innocent victims.

The Star’s analysis also found that:

•Drivers with revoked or suspended licenses represent only 14 percent of Missouri’s licensed drivers, but they caused about 25 percent of Kansas City’s fatal wrecks in which a driver was found at fault.