7 takeaways: How the California DMV allows dangerous drivers to stay on the road

Ervin Wyatt's history behind the wheel spreads across two pages of a recent court filing: Fleeing police. Fleeing police again. Running a red light. Causing a traffic collision. Driving without a license, four times. A dozen speeding tickets.

Yet the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued him a license in 2019. Wyatt promptly got three more speeding tickets, court records show. Prosecutors say he was speeding again in 2023 when he lost control and crashed into oncoming traffic, killing three women. He's now facing murder charges in Stanislaus County.

The DMV routinely allows drivers like these - with horrifying histories of dangerous driving, including DUIs, crashes and numerous tickets - to continue to operate on our roadways, a CalMatters investigation has found. Too often they go on to kill. Many keep driving even after they kill. Some go on to kill again.

MORE: What every Californian needs to know as REAL ID deadline approaches

CalMatters reviewed vehicular manslaughter cases in California from 2019 through early 2024 to understand how the state handles dangerous drivers.

The court records and driving histories reveal a state so concerned with people having access to motor vehicles for work and life that it allows deadly drivers to share our roads despite the cost. Officials may call driving a privilege, but they treat it as a right - often failing to take drivers' licenses even after they kill someone on the road.

Here are the key takeaways from our investigation:

1. The DMV misses - or ignores - patterns of reckless behavior on the roads that persist for years, failing to stop dangerous drivers before they kill.

The state system that targets motorists who rack up tickets is designed to catch clusters of reckless behavior, not long-term patterns.

The state suspends a driver's license for accumulating four points in a year, six points in two years or eight points in three years. What does it take to get that many points? Using a cellphone while driving is zero points. A speeding ticket is a point. Vehicular manslaughter is two points.

And while there are laws requiring the DMV to suspend a driver's license for certain crimes, like DUIs, there is no such requirement for many vehicular manslaughter convictions.

It's often up to the DMV whether to act. Routinely it doesn't.

2. Nearly 40% of drivers charged with vehicular manslaughter since 2019 have a valid license, according to DMV records.

That's about 1,000 out of 2,600 drivers for whom we obtained DMV reports, drivers like Joshua Daugherty.

In July 2020, Daugherty drifted onto the highway shoulder while driving near Mammoth Lakes, overcorrected to the left and lost control, court filings show. His Toyota Tacoma cut across the lane into oncoming traffic, where an SUV broadsided it. Daugherty's girlfriend, 25-year-old Krystal Kazmark, died.

In August 2009, in a strikingly similar incident, Daugherty was speeding along a Riverside County highway when his Ford Expedition drifted onto the shoulder. Witnesses told police he hit a dirt embankment and went airborne, the SUV flipping onto its roof. A 16-year-old girl riding in the back died.

He was convicted of vehicular manslaughter in both cases. The DMV suspended his license after his conviction for killing Kazmark. But it wasn't enough to keep him off the road. Before he could report to jail, two months after the conviction, police caught him driving on a suspended license.

The DMV reissued Daugherty a license in July 2024.

3. The DMV often takes no action against drivers convicted of killing someone on the road.

State law requires the agency to strip motorists of their driving privileges for three years after a felony vehicular manslaughter conviction. But there is no such requirement for most misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter convictions. It's up to the DMV whether to do anything.

We found nearly 200 drivers with a valid license whose DMV record shows a conviction for misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter but for whom there is no suspension listed.

That includes truck driver Ramon Pacheco, who made a U-turn in front of an oncoming motorcycle, killing 29-year-old Dominic Lopez-Toney, who was finishing his rotations to be a doctor.

Court records show Pacheco had gotten in trouble behind the wheel before. He had been arrested for DUI in 2009, caused a collision in 2013 and got a ticket in 2016 for making an unsafe turn.

MORE: California DMV gets trans man's gender wrong 3 times on ID

Months after San Joaquin prosecutors charged Pacheco with vehicular manslaughter, he got into another collision for which he was also deemed most at fault.

Pacheco ultimately pleaded no contest to misdemeanor manslaughter and received probation. His DMV record as of Feb. 11 indicates his driving privileges were never suspended; his commercial driver's license is valid.

In the wake of the tragedy, Lopez-Toney's mother has become an advocate for truck safety.

"Road safety and truck safety is not a priority right now with our legislators, with our government," Nora Lopez said. "Changing our mindset, our attitudes, our culture on the roads is not impossible."

4. The DMV issued licenses to 150 drivers less than a year after they allegedly killed someone on the road.

Prosecutors say Jadon Mendez was speeding in December 2021 in Santa Clara County when he lost control and caused a crash that killed a mother of three young children. A few weeks later, he got a speeding ticket.

And yet, the DMV issued him his current driver's license on Jan. 27, 2022 - 49 days after the fatal crash. Mendez's manslaughter case is still open, and his license is still listed as valid.

5. Nearly 400 of the drivers charged with killing someone got a ticket or were in another collision - or both - after their fatal crash.

That's about 15% of the drivers for whom we got the DMV reports. While the reports don't indicate whether a driver was at fault in a crash, the records do suggest many drivers continue to drive dangerously even after killing someone on the road.

A commercial driver drove his semi truck on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic, killing a motorcyclist in Kern County in 2021. Less than a year later, he still had a valid license when he barreled his semi into slow-moving traffic, hitting four vehicles and killing a woman in Fresno County, records show. Another man, sentenced to nine years in prison for killing two women while driving drunk, got his privileges restored by the DMV after being paroled, only to drive high on meth in Riverside and weave head-on into another car, killing a woman.

6. Hundreds of drivers have vehicular manslaughter or related convictions that don't appear in DMV records.

The apparent error means some drivers who should have had their driving privileges suspended instead show up in DMV records as having a valid license.

Between March 2017 and March 2022, Trevor Cook received two citations for running red lights, got two speeding tickets and was deemed responsible for two collisions, including one in which someone was injured, court records show.

Cook still had a valid license on April 14, 2022, a month after his last speeding ticket, when he blew through a Yolo County stop sign at more than 100 mph, killing Prajal Bista as he passed through the intersection, on his way to work after dinner and a movie with his wife, according to details of the crash that prosecutors included in court filings. Bista was driving the speed limit and on track to make it to work 30 minutes early.

MORE: State Senator Wiener to DMV: Stop writing 'San Fran' on driver's licenses

On March 28, 2024, Cook pleaded no contest to felony vehicular manslaughter.

The manslaughter conviction - like hundreds of others we found - isn't listed on Cook's driving record. The DMV issued Cook his current driver's license just a month after the conviction, agency records show. Less than two weeks after that, he got a ticket for disobeying a traffic signal.

"It's stunning to me that eight months later his license is still showing as valid and the conviction for killing someone while driving is not reflected in his driving record," said Melinda Aiello, chief deputy district attorney in Yolo County. "You killed somebody. I'd think there might be some license implications."

7. The DMV denied our request to discuss our findings with Director Steve Gordon.

Gordon instead issued a brief statement: "The modernization of our systems, including the launch of the Driver Safety Portal, reflects our ongoing commitment to enhancing accountability and transparency while continually refining our processes to ensure California's roads are safer for everyone."

Chris Orrock, a DMV spokesperson, said the agency follows the law when issuing licenses. "We use our authority as mandated and as necessary," he said.

Orrock said the DMV couldn't comment on individual drivers. But he and agency officials did explain what happens after a deadly collision, a process that's separate from any statutorily required suspensions following a conviction.

When law enforcement reports a fatal crash, the agency's driver safety branch flags all drivers who might be at fault. It then looks into the collision and decides whether the agency should suspend those motorists' driving privileges. If the driver contests the action, there's a hearing that could include witness testimony. Suspensions are open-ended. Drivers need to ask for their license back, and agency personnel decide whether the suspension should end or continue. These discretionary suspensions typically last for about a year.

And while officials said the DMV can continue a suspension if they think a driver poses a danger, Orrock said they need to give drivers an opportunity to get their license back. He said there's no process in the state "to permanently revoke a license."

___

Court research by Robert Lewis, Lauren Hepler, Anat Rubin, Sergio Olmos, Cayla Mihalovich, Ese Olumhense, Ko Bragg, Andrew Donohue and Jenna Peterson