Starting Thursday, someone caught driving drunk may need a cab for more than just the ride home.
They may also need one for the ride to the impoundment lot.
The Eugene Police Department announced it will begin enforcing two Oregon traffic laws enacted in 1997, which allow officers to tow the vehicles of people detained for driving while intoxicated, driving with a suspended or revoked license, violating license restrictions or driving uninsured.
EPD is now enforcing the laws because a redistribution of administrative duties allows them to handle the extra paperwork, according to EPD Sgt. Tom Mason, who supervises the traffic enforcement unit.
The new enforcement will mainly target unlicensed and uninsured drivers, Mason said.
“Our experience is that there is a certain group of drivers … that choose to continue driving uninsured,” he said.
Many continue to drive uninsured because overcrowded jails mean courts cannot sentence offenders to jail time, Mason said.
“The court can say, ‘Well, you didn’t pay your fines, so your license is suspended,’ but there’s really not a whole lot they can do except make the fines bigger and make the suspension longer when the license is already suspended,” Mason said. “And people who’ve been hit by an uninsured driver realize that once they hit you, you’re out of luck.”
Officers gave out 7,947 towable citations last year, according to an EPD study.
Beaverton, Portland, Springfield and the Lane County Sheriff’s Office already enforce the towing laws.
The sheriff’s office began enforcing the laws two years ago, and Lt. Steven Weir said the results have been “significant.”
“Uninsured drivers have traditionally been a big issue here,” Weir said about Lane County. “It was not unusual for us to pull over the same people over and over, and now we don’t see those people on the road.”
Mason said EPD incorporated the towing policy as part of a larger traffic law enforcement effort. The department received a $15,000 grant to enforce seatbelt laws and a $10,000 grant to enforce drunk driving laws, both from the Oregon Department of Transportation. Mason said EPD will use the money to fund additional patrols.