When Tina Turcotte of Scarborough died in July 2005 after a truck driver with a suspended license and an abysmal driving record slammed into the back of her car, legislators focused their spotlight on the issue of drivers with suspended licenses.

“Tina’s Law,” which passed a year later, created tougher penalties for people who continue to drive with suspended licenses and those who are habitual offenders.

Even so, Maine State Police troopers in 2007 cited “an all-time record” number of people caught behind the wheel after losing their privilege to drive, state police spokesman Stephen McCausland said Friday.

“In the past two weeks, another 111 motorists have been cited by troopers for operating after suspension of their driver’s licenses,” he said. “That brings the yearly total to 3,200 OAS citations that troopers have issued this year.”

The number of people who have their driver’s license suspended is large, Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said.

“We suspended around 85,000 on average [annually],” he said. “That’s for failure to pay child support, failure to pay a fine” and numerous other reasons such as being caught with a “short fish or excessive noise at a party.”

“It may not have anything to do with a moving violation,” Dunlap said. “Of those, about 70,000 are Maine residents.”

As of Dec. 1, Maine had 1,005,478 licensed drivers.

As part of Tina’s Law, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles is alerting local law enforcement about drivers with suspended licenses.

Dunlap said that “95 percent of the public complies with the law” and does not drive until their licenses are reinstated, but added that annually, “500-plus crashes involve suspended drivers.”

In the sister cities of Bangor and Brewer, there is on average more than one person a day stopped and cited for operating after suspension, according to year-to-date totals supplied by both agencies.

Bangor listed 287 arrests for operating after suspension, Bangor police Sgt. Paul Edwards said, and Brewer police Lt. Chris Martin said 178 people have been cited since January. Brewer’s figures include both OAS and those caught driving without a license.

“The reasons why are many,” Edwards said.

Martin said that in some cases, “there are definite economic motivators,” especially in rural communities, but added, “there are relief mechanics that they can pursue.”

For the most part, he said, “I think you’re dealing with a willful disregard of the rules.”

There is one major cause for OAS citations, Dunlap said.

“The number one reason is failure to pay a fine, close to 40 percent,” he said. “It’s not just driving fines. Failure to pay child support is a big one.”

Short 15-day suspensions commonly are issued to those who have a high number of driving demerit points, and “sadly, OUI [operating while under the influence] is still a big problem,” Dunlap said.

“The message is if you’ve had your license suspended, it should be a signal to you that your driving is not good,” he said. “You need to mind your speed … pay your fines.”

Dunlap suggested that those with fines pay the full amount or make arrangements with the court to make payments, because “these things really do snowball,” he said.

Martin said he also sees an ugly trend in who is caught driving with suspended licenses. Just like Scott Hewitt of Caribou, who killed Tina Turcotte in 2005 with 63 previous driving convictions and more than 20 license suspensions under his belt, others with similar circumstances do the same, he said.

“The people we’ve caught driving after suspension, if you look at their history, they’ve got history” of other offenses, Martin said. “We’ve found that that type of behavior seems to repeat itself.”

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