A group of high school girls in Boston sat stranded while waiting for their limo drive to return. He never showed back up. Turns out that while being stopped for being parked in a closed lot before picking the girls up, he was arrested. His license had been suspended for 2 years.
Yet their story was not as bad as others I researched. In February of 2007, according to the Rocky Mountain News, a 17 year old girl lost her leg when the limo driver,charged with careless driving ran over her. It was revealed that the driver had 2 prior DUI citations and was a registered sex offender barred from contact with minors.To their credit, Colorado now requires limo drivers to undergo background checks, both criminal and from the DMV.

The story repeated itself in June of this year in Newburyport, Ma. The driver there had been convicted of aggravated felonious assault on someone under the age of 13! The problem had also surfaced across the pond. In Wales, police are pushing for mandatory background checks of all limo and taxi drivers! Their fear? Forty percent of limo rental business is from teenagers or their parents for things like proms and graduation parties.

I am not suggesting all drivers are bad. In states where checks are mandatory, the largest majority of applicants pass with no problems. However, the problem is the regulations vary from state to state and in some cases, county to county within a particular state. For instance, in California, where background checks of drivers are mandatory, there is a much lower instance of arrests with limo drivers than in states where no such regulations exsist. So what can be done? Well other than mounting a political rally within your county or state legislator’s office, officials in all the cities researched share the same sentiments. Make sure the driver is licensed.
(In most states this is called a right to carry passenger license,or some other terminology close to that.) Also, especially where young people are involved, ask the questions you would when your child is with a stranger. Has this person been cleared for this activity? Does your company perform criminal background checks on all drivers? Or as one parent from Boston put it- If you need to, check their breath yourself, and have someone else check everything else. Sounds like good advice.