By Cindy Clayton
The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA.)
Copyright 2006 Landmark Communications, Inc.
Two Hampton Roads cities are giving motorists another reason not to drink and drive.
Drivers who cause a crash, prompting a police, fire or paramedic response, and are convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol in Chesapeake or Virginia Beach receive a bill for $250.
The bills, permitted by state law, allow cities to recover the costs of sending rescue workers to crash scenes caused by people driving illegally, police and city treasurers said.
Since Virginia Beach started the billing in 1997, that city has collected more than $500,000 for DUI convictions, said Helen Mundy of the Virginia Beach city treasurer’s office.
Chesapeake has collected close to $30,000 during the 2005- 06 fiscal year, City Treasurer Barbara Carraway said. That city began billing in 2004.
Both cities used to send bills to everyone convicted of a DUI, but the state has since narrowed the focus of the law to drivers who prompt emergency responses.
So far, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach are the only two South Hampton Roads cities sending such bills, city treasurers said.
Last year, a police department in Northern Virginia called Sgt. Chris Hession of the Virginia Beach Police Department’s Fatal Crash Team to find out more about how the process works, he said.
Each quarter, crime analysts send a list of names to his department, and officers check court records for convictions, Hession said. The n ames of people who qualify for the bills are forwarded to the city treasurer, who sends out the bill and collects the fee.
Money collected goes into both cities’ general funds, officials said.
In Virginia Beach, the money is earmarked for traffic-safety equipment for police, including radar and breath test machines, Hession said. “If we could justify it, we could use it for training,” Hession said.
The fee, along with the costs of hiring a lawyer, reinstating a license and paying court fines and escalating insurance, probably still won’t deter some people from drinking and driving, police and others said.
Still, Hession said, the cities have benefited from the cost recovery fee.
“It’s well worth doing,” Hession said.