Panel targets suspended license violators

AUGUSTA – Maine’s state police chief said Tuesday the public can make a big contribution to public safety by identifying motorists who keep driving after license suspensions. He called those offenders “a particularly deadly group of people.”

“There’s nothing like good old citizen initiative out there,” Col. Craig Poulin said as a working group appointed by Gov. John Baldacci delved into the problem of multiple offenders who continue to drive after losing their licenses. The opening meeting was held at state Public Safety Department headquarters.

The impetus was the July 29 accident on the Maine Turnpike in Hallowell in which a trucker’s rig crushed a car, fatally injuring the driver. The trucker, Scott Hewitt of Caribou, was driving on a suspended license at the time of the accident.

State officials said Hewitt’s record includes at least 42 convictions for driving offenses and 19 license suspensions, putting him in a select group of the state’s worst repeat offenders who refuse to get off the highways.

Hewitt was arrested again Saturday after allegedly driving again, and charged with violating bail conditions and other new offenses. As of Tuesday evening, Hewitt remained incarcerated at the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton.

Poulin pointed out that even when police do catch drivers under suspension, they lack the ability to curb them. Repeat offenders often are released on light bail or no bail, and are soon behind the wheel again, Poulin said.

As he opened the meeting, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said state officials cannot guarantee accidents like the recent one that claimed the life of 40-year-old Tina Turcotte will never happen again, but steps can be taken so they happen less.

He said the group in the coming weeks would consider a wide range of ideas, including increased sentences and jail time.

Dunlap, whose department administers state motor vehicle laws, endorsed Poulin’s notion of getting help from the public in identifying drivers who should be off the road.

He floated the possibility of modeling a program after the state’s Operation Game Thief, in which anonymous callers report poachers over a toll-free phone line.

The secretary of state’s office estimates that nearly 7 percent of Maine drivers have had their licenses suspended five or more times. Only a small percentage of them are commercial drivers, state police say.

Participants in Tuesday’s meeting made numerous references to the July 29 crash, which remains under investigation.

“We’re conducting an exhaustive review of that crash now,” said Poulin, adding that reconstruction of the accident and mechanics of the crash are being closely examined.

Investigators are also recreating a paper trail from receipts and other pieces of evidence to establish where Hewitt drove and with whom he did business.

Officials from the state Transportation Department, and others from the state police and motor vehicle bureau, participated in Tuesday’s session.