journal#31

The pick of the week is "Cities taking vehicles of uninsured off street". Phoenix police towed 10,467 vehicles in the past year, under a state law that targets uninsured drivers involved in car accidents.The drivers of more than half 6,784 of the vehicles towed between March 31, 2006, and February lacked a driver's license when police pulled them over for traffic violations, said Phoenix police Officer Hugo Lopez. Under the law, which took effect in August 2005, vehicles involved in traffic violations must be impounded if a driver lacks a license or if he or she has been involved in an accident without insurance and a license. It took Phoenix a while to create a special unit to handle the requirement, police said. Since then, they've been confiscating an average of 1,300 cars per month.