Empowering Judges and Keeping the Roads Safe.

• Author: Williams-Byers, Judge Gayle

This article was originally published in the National Traffic Law-Center's Between the Lines newsletter in October 2022 under NHTSA cooperative agreement 693JJ91950010. It is reprinted here with the permission ot the National Traffic Law Center.

In June 2018, a truck plowed into a Jeep Wrangler stopped in traffic on Interstate 84 in Idaho, killing the truck driver and three Idaho airmen who were in the Jeep. A newspaper account later revealed that the truck driver had been convicted ot more than 20 driving-related violations in four states before the crash and additional offenses in other states. The obvious question was, why was a driver with so many convictions still on the road and in possession of a commercial drivers license? One likely reason, though it was not part of the record, relates to an all-too-common traffic court practice called "masking." Masking relates to plea bargains struck by commercial driver's license or CDL holders who are in danger ot accruing driving violations including driving under the influence that could result in the automatic suspension of their licenses and commercial driving privileges. (1) When drivers are cited, whether in their personal or professional vehicles, they often seek to plead guilty to different, non-moving or reduced infractions, agree to attend driver's education courses or seek to participate in diversion or deferred prosecution programs.

Prosecutors and judges are often sympathetic to the drivers' argument that the loss of the CDL will take away their means of earning a living and supporting their family. But preserving a driver's license in this way effectively--and illegally--masks the true record ot dangerous driving.

The Federal Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act was enacted to prevent the concealment of unsafe driving records and to establish uniform sanctions for certain unsafe driving practices by holders of a commercial driver's license. Under the Federal regulations that were promulgated under the Act, all out-of-State traffic convictions involving a CDL holder, regardless ot whether the violation occurred in a coinmercial or private vehicle, must be reported to the licensee's licensing state. Under 49 CFR [section] 384.226, a State is prohibited from masking, deferring imposition of a judgment of conviction, or allowing an individual to enter a diversion program that would prevent a conviction from appearing on the commercial driver's license record. Under this regulation, a...