Reporting a bad driver in Missouri

Missouri 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.
• *55 (1-800-525-5555) — Missouri State Highway Patrol. Highway patrol line for dangerous driving as it happens.

It reaches a dispatcher who may send a trooper to a driver still on the road — use it while the driving is happening, and 911 for an immediate danger. The Patrol's own wording: dial 1-800-525-5555 or cellular *55 to report a traffic crash, emergencies, intoxicated or drugged drivers, reckless driving, vehicle problems, hazardous material spills and criminal activity. From a mobile phone *55 connects to the nearest Troop Headquarters.

2. Reporting to Missouri 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 Missouri

• The non-emergency line of the Missouri municipal police department or county sheriff’s office 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

If you are not related to the driver

Missouri's statute does not close the list in so many words: § 302.291.3 says the director “shall have good cause to believe that an operator is incompetent or unqualified to retain such person's license on the basis of, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, a report by” the people it then names. But the statute gives you no channel — it requires the report to be made in the form the Department prescribes, and Form 4319 says a driver condition report “must be completed by one of the following”, then lists the professionals and the driver's immediate family. The bar is high by design: the courts call § 302.291 quasi-penal, put a heavy burden on the director to prove good cause existed, have reversed the director for failing to meet it, and have held that advanced age alone is not good cause. Read it as the director being free to act on strong evidence from wherever it comes, not as an invitation to send one in.

Administrative fitness process

The details, for the people Missouri allows to file.

Agency

Missouri Department of Revenue

Unit

Driver License Bureau

Form

Form 4319 — Driver Condition Report (Rev. 11-2017)

Where to send

Driver License Bureau, P.O. Box 200, Jefferson City MO 65105-0200 (the address printed on the form; the Bureau's street address is 301 West High Street Room 470)

Contact

(573) 526-2407 · fax (573) 522-8174 · dlbmail@dor.mo.gov

What information do I need to report a driver?

• Submit Form 4319, printable online or obtainable at any Missouri licence office. Complete the entire form and sign it on the reverse side.
• Immediate family means spouse, parent, child, grandparent, sibling, grandchild, great grandparent, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew or great grandchild — in-laws are excluded.
• Under the statute a family member must be within three degrees of consanguinity (or the spouse) and at least eighteen, and no person may report the same family member more than once in a twelve-month period.
• Report only your firsthand knowledge of the driver — what you have personally observed or have physical evidence of. The form says: "Do not report what you have been told or heard."
• Describe the incidents or conditions in detail, with dates, places, accident reports and anything else that supports the need for re-examination. Age alone is not a sufficient reason for retesting.
• The form records driver behaviour by category — traffic violation, lack of attention, dangerous actions, poor driving skills, caused traffic accident or incident, lack of knowledge of traffic laws, obstructing traffic, other — with location, date and time, and separately records medical conditions by category.
• Identify the driver: name, Social Security or driver licence number, date of birth, address, telephone, and the licence plate number and state of issuance.
• Give your own full name, relationship to the driver, address, telephone number and signature. You sign under penalties of perjury, declaring that you reasonably and in good faith believe the person cannot safely operate a motor vehicle, and that you understand that intentionally filing a false report is a class A misdemeanour carrying liability for the damages that result.

Will the driver find out who reported them?

On the form and in the statute. The form: "All information contained in this report shall be kept confidential, unless released by a court order." The statute goes further — notwithstanding Missouri's Sunshine Law (chapter 610), all reports made and all medical records the Department reviews under § 302.291 are kept confidential except on the order of a court of competent jurisdiction, or in a review of the director's action under § 302.311, which is the driver's own appeal. And § 302.291.8 makes it a class A misdemeanour, with liability for damages, for anyone to knowingly violate that confidentiality or to knowingly permit or encourage the unauthorised use of a report or of the reporting person's name. Your name is still on the report — it has to be.

The law protects you for reporting. Section 302.291.5 says it plainly: "Any person who makes a report in good faith pursuant to this section shall be immune from any civil liability that otherwise might result from making the report." It is civil immunity, it turns on good faith, and the counterweight is in the next breath — intentionally filing a false report is a class A misdemeanour and carries liability for the damages that result (§ 302.291.9).

What can the Missouri Department of Revenue do after a report?

• The director examines the report and may investigate further; a physical examination may be required where a physical condition is indicated, or a driving test where there has been a loss of mobility.
• The driver is notified of required tests by certified mail and given 30 days to complete them and return the results.
• The director may allow the driver to keep the licence, revoke, suspend or deny it, or add restrictions.
• The driver may appeal to the circuit court in their county of residence within 30 days of the notice date.
• Before requiring anything, the director must give the driver ten days' notice in writing by certified mail.
• Refusing or neglecting to submit to an examination within thirty days of that notice is itself grounds for suspension, denial or revocation.
• Where an examination shows a condition that potentially impairs safe driving, the director may also require further periodic examinations.
• The examination may include a written test, tests of driving skills, vision and highway sign recognition and, where appropriate, a physical and/or mental examination under § 302.173.
• Where a licence is limited or lost on a report about a condition that is temporary, the driver may petition the director for total or partial reinstatement, on a prescribed form and with a statement from a health care provider of the same or similar licence as the one who made the initial report; the director decides within thirty days and that decision is itself appealable.
• The Department of Revenue keeps records and statistics of the reports made and the actions taken, and develops the standardised form and the reporting guidelines in consultation with the medical advisory board established by § 302.292.

Statutory authority: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 302.291 (incompetent or unqualified operators — director may require examination; report permitted, when, by whom, contents, immunity from liability; confidentiality, penalty; appeal), with §§ 302.173 and 302.301 for the examination and licence restrictions.

Missouri is one of 18 of 51 US jurisdictions where a witness unrelated to the driver has no confirmed way to report them to the licensing agency (the 51-location study). That gap is one reason Jerk Alert exists.