Leaders call out lack of action against reckless drivers
WASHINGTON - Cars with dozens of unpaid traffic tickets remain on the streets of D.C.
One resident says he gets multiple tickets a day to his home for someone who hasn't lived there for years.
Garrett Hennigan is looking for answers.
READ MORE: DC issues over $1 billion in parking and traffic tickets over last 3 years: AAA
He posted to Twitter showing the endless stream of citations that come in the mail for a man who used to live at his address more than seven years ago.
The former resident allegedly has a car registered in Virginia.
Councilmember Mary Cheh has been fighting for change.
"Our citizens ought to be outraged by this and outraged not just because this person is getting away with all of this but outraged because what they’re doing is dangerous to the public," Cheh said.
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Hundreds of thousands of vehicles across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia are eligible for booting, according to Cheh.
She says a fraction of those have racked up dozens of violations.
In his tweets, Henningan says this person has a laundry list of tickets totaling nearly 30 thousand dollars worth of fines.
He says he’s called both D.C. and Virginia's DMVs – both pointing their fingers at each other.
Councilmember Cheh, who represents Ward 3 in the District, blames the D.C. Department of Public Works.
"I don’t know why the department is lagging, dragging its feet, not acting when it’s an invitation to people to drive dangerously," she said.
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Earlier this year, D.C. Public Works added more staffing, totaling nine employees to cover the city’s booting program.
Cheh says even with that it could take 25 years to fill the backlog.
"You want to get down to Vision Zero with no injuries or deaths, how are you going to do that when you have people flying in from other jurisdictions completely at ease with going through red lights and speeding?" she said.
D.C. Public Works does have an open bid on its website for self-releasing boot companies. That bid is open until mid-March.
Councilmember Cheh says it remains to be seen if that will become reality.