Details about this story

• Source: Des Moines Register
• Date: January 28, 2007
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Lee Rood
• Topics: Safety
• Data Types: State Data
• Description/Excerpt: State transportation officials are pulling the driving privileges of Iowans at nearly twice the rate they did a decade ago, a Des Moines Register investigation found. The outstanding debt that all Iowans owe for everything from overdue speeding tickets to drunk driving fines to law enforcement surcharges is at a record high: $438.7 million. About 29 percent of all fines and fees imposed by the courts in Iowa's eight judicial districts goes uncollected. The higher the fines, the more serious the offenses, the less likely offenders are to pay, the Register found. Roughly 37 percent of all people who owed fines to the courts of $500 or more last year for driving offenses - some 29,000 people - have not paid anything, a computer-assisted analysis of thousands of offender records going back to 1997 found.
• Database or Graphic: Go to site (php)