In summary
The investigation was honored with the Frank A. Blethen Award for Local Accountability Reporting in the Poynter Journalism Prizes, and as a finalist for excellence in local and regional investigative reporting in the Scripps Howard Journalism Awards.
CalMatters’ “License to Kill’’ investigation of California’s Department of Motor Vehicles was recently honored in two separate national journalism contests.
The reporting by reporters Robert Lewis and Lauren Hepler revealed that although the California DMV has the power to investigate drivers who cause fatal crashes, it rarely does – with tragic results.
The series was honored with the Frank A. Blethen Award for Local Accountability Reporting in the Poynter Journalism Prizes. The awards honor journalists and news organizations across platforms for exceptional work in writing, reporting, innovation and leadership. The Frank A. Blethen Award is sponsored by The Seattle Times.
Judges said of the investigation: “Through an exhaustive scouring of court records and compelling storytelling around victims’ families, CalMatters showed how the state of California failed to keep hundreds of deadly drivers off the roads. This is accountability journalism at its best: Illuminating the dangerous gaps in a system and spurring those in power to fix them.”
Congratulations to the other winners: the staff of The Los Angeles Times for “L.A. Firestorms,” and Danielle DuClos of The Capital Times for “Dismissed.”
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And the investigation was named a finalist for excellence in local and regional investigative reporting in the Scripps Howard Journalism Awards. The awards are one of the nation’s most prestigious U.S. journalism competitions, honoring journalism across all media.
Congratulations to the other winners: in first place, the San Francisco Chronicle for “Failed to Death,” and the other finalist is KARE 11-TV for “KARE 11 Investigates: Housing Hustle.”
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To better understand why California was seeing an increase in traffic fatalities, CalMatters built a database of vehicular homicide cases – sending reporters to courthouses in all 58 counties and spending nearly $20,000 in public records. From that database, reporters Lewis and Hepler delivered an ongoing series of stories exposing how officials across government – DMV leaders, judges, elected officials, prosecutors, police and court clerks – routinely allowed dangerous drivers to operate in California.
Since then, nearly 200 drivers who killed someone on the road have had their driving privileges suspended or revoked, and more than 30 counties have vowed to start reporting vehicular manslaughter convictions to the DMV. Legislation is in process in Sacramento.
In February, a bipartisan group of lawmakers announced an unprecedented legislative package aimed at confronting California’s permissive roadway safety laws. To date, 16 bills have been introduced, with many publicly citing CalMatters’ findings as inspiration.
