Reporting a bad driver in Connecticut

Connecticut bad driver reporting & safety guide

1. If it is happening now immediate danger

Emergency hotlines

• 911 — for a driver who is an active danger to other people right now. That is a police matter, and no app is a substitute for the call.
• No Connecticut-specific line is listed here. We publish a patrol code only when a state police or DOT page carries it.

2. Reporting to Connecticut law enforcement after the fact

Neither the hotlines above nor anything in this section is the licence-review route in section 3, and nothing filed on Jerk Alert reaches any of them.

Who takes the report in Connecticut

• The non-emergency line of the Connecticut municipal police department, or the Connecticut State Police troop covering towns without one with jurisdiction where it happened takes reports of dangerous driving that has already happened.
• Bring: the plate (full or partial) and state, the vehicle’s make, model and colour, the location, the date and time, the direction of travel, and what you saw.
• Expect a record rather than a ticket. An officer who did not witness the driving usually cannot cite for it, and what each agency acts on varies.

3. State DMV & licensing agency review

Administrative fitness process

Agency

Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles

Unit

Driver Services Division

Form

Affidavit (P-244, Rev. 11-17)

Where to send

Department of Motor Vehicles, Driver Services Division, 60 State Street, Wethersfield CT 06161-1013

What information do I need to report a driver?

• The affidavit must be completed in its entirety and mailed to the Driver Services Division.
• It must be sworn before a notary public or a Commissioner of the Superior Court. It is made under oath and subject to penalty of false statement under Connecticut General Statute 53a-157.
• You must give the driver’s name, date of birth and address, describe the incidents that caused you to file, and give your own name, address, telephone number and signature.
• The concern must be about the driver’s ability to operate a motor vehicle safely due to a medical condition, and the affidavit must be based on your personal observation.

Will the driver find out who reported them?

The form carries a notice in its own words: THIS FORM IS SUBJECT TO DISCLOSURE TO THE LICENSEE. The driver you report can obtain the affidavit, and your name, address and telephone number are on it. Connecticut is not an anonymous route. The statute behind the process says the same from the other direction: under § 14-46d the reports and records used to decide whether someone meets the health standards are for the confidential use of the Commissioner and the Medical Advisory Board and are not available to other people or agencies or usable as evidence at a trial — but they may be made available to the individual they are about, and they may be used in licensing proceedings. § 14-46d also provides that a person who furnishes such a report may be compelled to testify about it at those proceedings.

The law protects you for reporting. Connecticut gives a good-faith reporter civil immunity in words. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 14-46f: "Any person acting in good faith without negligence or malicious intent in making any report to the commissioner or board pursuant to sections 14-46a to 14-46g, inclusive, shall be immune from civil liability." Read it for what it is: civil immunity only, conditional on good faith and on the absence of negligence or malicious intent, and neither the affidavit nor any DMV page repeats it — P-244 mentions only the penalty for a false statement.

What can the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles do after a report?

• The affidavit is reviewed to determine whether any further action is required.
• Where a medical question arises the DMV's route runs through a Medical Examination Report (P-142M) and, under §§ 14-46b and 14-46c, referral to the Motor Vehicle Operator's License Medical Advisory Board — eight to fifteen medical professionals appointed by the Commissioner, which meets in executive session when an individual's condition is discussed.
• On a case referred to it the board must make its recommendation within sixty days. It may rely on medical or optometric records, interview the person, or require a physical examination and a written medical report by a medical professional who is not a board member; the person may obtain a report from a medical professional of their own choosing, which the board must give due consideration (§ 14-46c(6)).
• The board's recommendations are advisory only and are not binding on the Commissioner (§ 14-46e(a)).
• A person who refuses to submit to a physical examination or to provide other information requested by the Commissioner or the board is considered unfit to operate a motor vehicle until they comply (§ 14-46e(c)).
• Where a licence is withdrawn, the Commissioner may authorise limited operation — only while under the instruction of a licensed driving instructor, or with a testing agent administering a road skills test — after a hearing determines the person has no health problem affecting safe driving and orders a road skills test as a condition of reinstatement (§ 14-46e(b)).
• A person whose licence is suspended, restricted or revoked, or whose application is denied, has a right of appeal under chapter 54, and may not drive while the appeal is pending (§ 14-46g).

Statutory authority: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 14-46 (reports on persons with chronic health or vision problems); §§ 14-46a to 14-46g (Medical Advisory Board: § 14-46c responsibilities, § 14-46d confidential use of reports, § 14-46e advisory recommendations, § 14-46f immunity, § 14-46g appeal); § 53a-157 (false statement).

What this route can and cannot do

A fitness-to-drive referral, not a bad-driving complaint: it is built around a medical, cognitive or physical condition and asks for the driver’s name and date of birth, which a plate number does not give you.