WASHINGTON — D.C. resident Jeffrey Pincus was walking to his local grocery store in Navy Yard Sunday when he noticed something out of the ordinary.
Between Pincus and Whole Foods, was a black Nissan sports utility vehicle, parked on the sidewalk.
“It was actually kind of a ridiculous sight,” he said. “There, walking down the sidewalk, and there's just a car, completely blocking the sidewalk. Flashers aren't even on. It's just sitting right there.”
As people walked around the obstacle, Pincus took a few moments to snap a picture of the D.C. car’s license plates on his phone. He then went home and entered the license plate information into the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles ticketing website.
The D.C. DMV showed there were 50 citations attached to the license plate totaling more than $10,400 worth of fines.
“There were many tickets for 16 to 20 miles per hour speeding over the limit, like that's pretty serious,” he said. “That's not just going five over on the highway, that's going 20 over on residential streets. That can be pretty dangerous.”
The D.C. DMV website only shows the 30 most recent citations linked with the license plate. The range between March 7, 2022, and Sept. 21, 2020.
On two occasions, the driver was ticketed twice in one day. Ticketing data shows the person driving the car was also cited 14 times for traveling between 11 to 15 miles per hour over the speed limit.
“They were able to reregister their car,” Pincus said. “They have 2022 tags on there and it makes you wonder, is there something going on that this driver is getting special permission privileges that are not afforded to regular people out there?”
Pincus said he was particularly concerned for the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and people with disabilities who may have had to put extra effort into maneuvering around the car on the sidewalk.
Traffic safety has been a constant point of concern throughout the District over the years.
Data provided by the District Department of Transportation shows that 40 people died in traffic crashes in 2021 in D.C. So far, in 2022, D.C. has observed 13 traffic fatalities on its roads.
“I run, I also bike in the city,” he said. “I've encountered many situations as both a runner and a biker, [with] cars, not respecting you, or not seeing you, or taking dangerous actions,” he said.
WUSA9 reached out to both the D.C. DMV and D.C. Department of Public Works to see why the car Pincus encountered was still traveling on D.C. roads.
A D.C. DMV spokesperson said DPW parking personnel responded to a request for enforcement at the intersection, but the car had already left the location by the time officers had gotten there.
District officials also said at the time the car was last registered, its driver was contesting tickets already on his record. Due to the public health emergency D.C. was experiencing at the time, the DMV was not adding penalties to tickets, so the penalties placed against the car did not move to a past due status.
WUSA9 is told the same rules will not apply during the next registration renewal for the car.
The identity of the owner of the car cannot be released, according to the D.C. DMV.
According to D.C. DPW’s website, cars that have two or more unpaid parking or camera tickets that are more than two months old can be booted by parking enforcement crews.
In November, a D.C. DPW report revealed there were close to 44,000 boot eligible vehicles with registered in D.C. The same report showed 168,000 Virginia and 336,000 Maryland-registered cars that were eligible for similar enforcement.
D.C. found that more than $213 million is owed by the owners of those cars.
DC Councilmember Mary Cheh, who also chairs the DC Council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment, held a hearing regarding the effectiveness of vehicular booting in D.C. in December.
Cheh maintains the effort is understaffed and underfunded.
“The department has been indifferent and allowing people, in effect, to get away with this sort of thing,” she said.
Cheh said she has asked for more people to be on D.C. DPW’s booting and towing team. She said the team only had six employees and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had proposed to increase staffing to nine people in her most recent budget proposal.
But, Cheh said she is hopeful they can add even more staffers than that.
“The department had said at a hearing I had that they thought they could use 13,” she said. “So, I'm going to find money in the budget and make it 13.”
Cheh added she believes lowering the amount of traffic violation fines could also get more people to pay up in a timelier manner. She notes the fine amounts for traffic enforcement cameras in D.C. are higher than neighboring jurisdictions.
“People should obey the law, no question about it,” she said. “But, let's say you're somebody [with] a very low income, or you're poor, and you happen to get a ticket, and you can't pay it in 30 days. Then it’s going to double. Now, you really can't pay it.”
However, Cheh says one other obstacle is standing in the way of D.C. DPW booting cars. She said someone is going around the District illegally taking off boots and damaging them in the process.
“Why they're not able to catch this character, I'm not sure,” she said.
Either way, Pincus said he is hopeful the District can add more employees to its booting and towing team as soon as possible.
“The marginal benefit of hiring one more person just makes a lot of economic sense,” he said.