This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
CalMatters won second place for the Collier Prize, which recognizes coverage focused on state government institutions.
The prize is administered by the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications and is announced at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. The award recognizes the best U.S. professional reporting on state government accountability, across all media types.
CalMatters’ reporters Robert Lewis and Lauren Hepler won for “License to Kill,’’ an investigation of California’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The reporting revealed that although the California DMV has the power to investigate drivers who cause fatal crashes, it rarely does – with tragic results.
CalMatters discovered that the DMV routinely allows drivers to stay behind the wheel despite horrifying histories of dangerous driving, including DUIs, crashes and numerous tickets. Some went on to kill. Many kept driving even after they killed someone. Some went on to kill again.
There was no central database of vehicular homicide cases to examine, so CalMatters built one – 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.
“The Capitol community is paying more attention to it because of the investigative reporting,” Schultz said, “and I think that’s a good thing.”Congratulations to the other winners: in first place, KARE 11 of Minneapolis for “Housing Hustle,” its investigation of Medicare fraud in Minnesota, and in third place joint Capital bureau of the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald for “Hope Florida,” a series of stories that exposed how the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis orchestrated the transfer of $10 of public money to one of the pet projects of first lady Casey DeSantis – the Hope Florida Foundation.
