Here's an article about one of NJ's finest...

[nyrnyr1994]

I would've expected this in The Onion, but it's unfortunately true...

Traffic offender to remain in lockup
Facing 33rd charge, he pleads not guilty
Tuesday, April 20, 2004

BY MAURA McDERMOTT
Star-Ledger Staff

Peter Perrault is no stranger to Hanover Municipal Judge Brian O'Toole, whose courtroom he has appeared in at least eight times.

So when the Morristown man, who is facing his 33rd charge of driving with a suspended license, walked into court yesterday to enter a plea, O'Toole greeted him like an old friend.

~snip~

The diminutive tile installer, who wears his sandy brown hair shorn close to the skull, has amassed 53 moving violations, four drunken driving arrests and 102 suspensions in 22 years. He has racked up 42 points on his license.

That lengthy record has never appeared to stop him from driving.

He has survived two crashes, one in 1986 in Randolph in which he caused injuries and another in 1991 when his van reportedly became airborne and landed on 3-ton concrete blocks after he rear-ended a station wagon on Route 287.

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-3/108244290072980.xml?starledger?nmr

[vi5]

1. I read that yesterday in the Ledger....

There's actually another guy from northern, NJ who has a similarly horrible record of continually driving without a liscense which was suspended for drunk driving. Repeatedly.

Pathetic.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Considering my sitation with losing my license...

One that, from which I have yet to recover(It was for cancelled insurance, I had yet to receive my notice, I had moved, and had been cancelled 7 days before...I lost it in 98. I still don't drive.), I find this incredibly surprising and, strangely, not at all surprising. If you can believe that.

Now, here's a facts, sports fans. None of these mean I advocate drunk driving. I don't. In fact, I don't even drink:

1. Did you know that of the nearly 300 ways to lose your license in NJ, less than 100 of them have anything to do with driving?

2. Did you know that loss of license is the #1 cause of welfare registations in NJ? Lost your license and go on welfare, especially in the areas in the state where there is NO mass transit. The effects of this are incredibly more pronounced in the rural counties. Some lawyers have said that said effects are so pronounced that a court case can be made agains the policies on the basis of unequal application of justice and its effects.

3.That of the moneys collected by The State of NJ, for the feared and loathed surcharges, after the state takes its cut, the monies are then divided up, based upon market share and then distributed to the insurance companies? That we cannot have socialized medicine, but that we do have socialized auto insurance, for the companies, AFTER some of the highest rates in the nation?

4. That loss of license, especially amongst first time offenders, is known to be a cause of suicide, since it is so punitive, so economically devestating and that loss of job almost invariably follows loss of license?

The motor vehicle/auto insurance morass, in NJ, is THE third-rail issue and frankly, Rockin' Jimmy's reforms, while a start, did not go far enough. Buttonhole a politician on the issue, work him or her over and you will find that they just haven't scratched the veneer of the gordian knot of MV and insurance laws. It is such a mess and they have avoided it.

Truly, it has been written, in its present form to assist the insurance companies in their acturarial worries, by getting a certain number of people off the roads, by means fair and not-so-fair, whereupon they are thrown on the welfare roles for the real taxpayers to pay for. Ghod knows, the real taxpayers ain't the mega-corps.

Don't you think we NEED to do better?