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Saturday, September 27, 1997

Law sets up another roadblock

By PEGGY FIKAC / Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN (AP) -- Public access to Texas Department of Public Safety traffic accident reports has hit another roadblock in the wake of a state law incorporating federally required privacy protection for drivers.

The DPS said it has a way to ensure the new media can continue to get state traffic accident records despite the law, which allows drivers to keep confidential the personal information on motor vehicle records.

The proposed bypass requires news media representatives to agree in writing to abide by legal restrictions on using personal, private information -- including assuring that it will be used for certain purposes, such as motor vehicle safety, and that it won't be put on the Internet.

Personal information includes date of birth, driver's license number and address.

"The way our law is written here in Texas, our legal staff believes it's necessary to take these steps to make sure that we're not violating the law by releasing this information to the media," said DPS spokeswoman Sherri Deatherage Green.

But lawyer David Donaldson, representing two newspaper groups, said the agreement shouldn't be necessary.

The Texas Daily Newspaper Association and Texas Press Association, which together include nearly all newspapers, plan to ask a judge for a ruling.

"We don't agree with the way DPS is interpreting the law," said Donaldson. He said accident reports clearly are separate from other motor vehicle records addressed by the privacy law.

The newspaper groups already have secured a court order temporarily prohibiting enforcement of another provision in the state law. That would prevent people from getting traffic accident records unless they knew the name of at least one person involved, plus the location or the date of the crash.

Donaldson said that in the same lawsuit, the newspaper groups will ask the judge to adopt the interpretation that accident reports are separate from motor vehicle records.

"That should take care of the problem," Donaldson said. In the meantime, he said, "If they (media) want to get the information at this stage, given the DPS interpretation, they have to sign the agreement."

State lawmakers have said they approved the provision requiring people to know certain information to get accident reports in order to keep ambulance-chasing chiropractors, lawyers and others from improperly soliciting injured victims.

The Internet ban came after a woman notified a San Antonio lawmaker that her address -- which she was trying to hide from her former husband -- was published on the Internet by a company that bought driver's license information from the DPS.

The federal privacy law was sponsored by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., after an actress was slain in 1989 by a man who used a private investigator to obtain her driver's license records. It includes exemptions for tow truck driers and others.

The federal law has been found unconstitutional in South Carolina and Oklahoma based on 10th Amendment arguments that it usurps state's rights. Texas, however, has "nothing active going on" with regard to the law, said Ron Dusek, spokesman for Texas Attorney General Dan Morales.

Donaldson said he hoped Texas officials would consider bringing legal action.

Media and freedom-of-information groups are casting a wary eye on the DPS' proposed agreement.

"We appreciate the fact the current officers at DPS apparently are working to make sure the public still has access to this information through the media," said Dolph Tillotson, editor and publisher of The Galveston County Daily News.

"However -- and it's a darn big however -- we firmly believe that this material should be public information that not just newspapers but all the public should have free access to."

Nancy Monson of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas said, "Access to public information is a right of citizens in a democracy. While allowing the press at least to be a surrogate for that information is better than nothing, it is not the ideal solution."

She added, "With regard to the Internet, we need to grow up. The Internet is here. The Internet is how we get information today. Just becuase it's faster does not negate all the ideals and freedoms and rights that we've had in the past."

The agreement also appears to set up the news media as a special class of citizens, which may violate the Texas Public Information Act, said Tillotson, co-chairman of a legislative advisory committee formed by TDNA and TPA.

"The other thing that really concerns me as a newspaper editor is this leaves us virtually totally at the discretion of the personal opinion and interpretation of the officers of the Texas Department of Public Safety," he said.

"The current officers have apparently decided this information may well be in the public interest in terms of motor vehicle safety and theft and emissions and so forth. Who's to say the next set of officers there won't feel differently about that? Who's to say these officers won't change their mind the first time there's a controversial story?"