The bumpy ride for thousands of Texans trapped by excessive fees from the state’s driver responsibility program could come to an end soon under a bill to repeal and replace the long lamented initiative.

House Bill 2048 by Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, would raise all traffic fines in the state by $20, tack on $2 to insurance bills for all Texans and increase the cost of a drunken-driving conviction by as much as $6,000.

For the hundreds of thousands of Texas residents whose licenses are suspended because of the program, Zerwas’ bill offers immediate relief. If the driver responsibility program fees are all that is holding things up, suspended licensees will be eligible for reinstatement when the bill takes effect, likely Sept. 1.

“Repealing this program will empower them to work, empower them to earn a living and support their families,” said Mary Mergler, director of the criminal justice project for Texas Appleseed, a social justice group based in Austin.

There have been numerous attempts to kill the driver responsibility program, including one last session similar to Zerwas’ plan. But the current bill has the most traction and a slight head start from the previous bill by getting to the Senate floor last week after passing the House unanimously.

Created in 2003, the driver responsibility program was intended to boost funding for trauma care by imposing financial penalties on those most likely to find their way to an emergency room: erratic and dangerous drivers. Once people racked up enough driving violations within a three-year period or were convicted of driving while impaired, they were subject to annual fees, ranging from $100 for repeat moving violations to $2,000 for DWI offenses with a blood alcohol level about 0.16, double the legal limit.

About half of the money went to the state’s general fund, while the other half went to an account to fund trauma care in the state. That money, awarded to hospitals that treat emergency cases, helps the state tap into federal money related to Medicare.

Connecting driving to trauma care made sense, officials said, based on the demand that automobile crashes put on hospitals. At Memorial Hermann Health System, for example, 68 percent of trauma cases are related to vehicle incidents. Of those, half are related to driving under the influence, officials said.

What officials did not envision — though some critics raised alarms at the time — is that the driver responsibility program’s escalating fees would trap many in a cycle of debt. Those who could not pay the fines had their licenses suspended. Unable to work without automobile access, many continued to drive, accruing even more fines when they were caught.

For Arthur Ramirez, who spoke before a Texas House committee in favor of repealing the program last month, the high fees and lack of a license have made transitioning from prison difficult. He and family members paid more than $2,000 to address his past fines from a failure-to-appear charge, but struggle to pay the driver program surcharges. He said he recently had to turn down a job at an Austin-area warehouse because the work schedule meant he could not take a bus and he cannot drive.

“It is difficult for me, today, to achieve my goals,” he said.

As of 2016, the Texas Department of Public Safety said 1.4 million Texans had suspended licenses as a result of the driver responsibility program. Of those, 378,000 could not afford the payment plan set up for them.

Troy Bazan, another central Texas resident affected by the program, said he is working to repay his debts, but the program puts a large obstacle in his way.

“I cannot keep or maintain a steady job,” he said, noting that many positions require a driver’s license. “It gives you financial issues, employment issues and family issues.”

Across the board, Texans want to tap the brakes on the program.

“We all know the program doesn’t work,” Anderson County Judge Robert Johnston said, adding that many municipal courts are clogged with people who cannot break the pattern of setting up a payment plan for their fees and then being unable to pay, amassing more fines.

The program also did not live up to expectations of how much it would bring in for trauma care, with revenue declining from $84.4 million in fiscal 2011 to $71.2 million in fiscal 2017, as more people defaulted on the fees.

“There has been plenty of support to repeal it,” Zerwas said of the program “The thing that kept us on it was there was a fairly sustainable funding stream. That was what kept it alive, was the revenue to trauma funding.”

Though it does not come close to covering the roughly $300 million annual uncovered cost of trauma care in Texas, the money invested by the state is hugely important in major metro areas such as Houston and far-flung outposts in west Texas, experts said.

“When you look at the whole picture, the cost of trauma care is cost-prohibitive,” said Tom Flanagan, vice president of trauma for Memorial Hermann Health System. “The intent is to offset some of the hemorrhaging costs.”

Flanagan said for many hospitals around the state, the money makes it possible to have trauma care. The more hospitals can handle emergencies, he added, the better off all Texans are because it increases the likelihood of better care closer to the scene of an incident. Texas has 15 Level I trauma care facilities for adults, including three in the Houston area.

The bill would replace and in some cases exceed current revenue by tapping three sources and redistributing the money. Increasing the fine for traffic violations from $30 to $50 — the total cost of a citation includes numerous court fees in addition to the fine — would replace some of the money in the general fund and the trauma fund. The two accounts also would share some of the money from a doubling of the fee for the Automobile Burglary and Theft Prevention Authority to $4 on all vehicle insurance policies.

At an April hearing, the only opposition to the bill surrounded the insurance fee increase, which was fought by industry officials. Beaman Floyd, director of the Texas Coalition for Affordable Insurance Solutions, said that while all of the funding is important, doing so through a fee felt by all Texans is regressive.

The biggest hit to drivers’ pocketbooks, however, is reserved for those convicted of driving while intoxicated. The penalty for a first-time DWI would increase by $3,000, while second and third offenses within a three-year period would increase by $4,500 and $6,000, respectively.

In Texas, depending on the location and whether the accused goes to trial and retains a lawyer, a DWI can cost between $3,000 and $17,000, meaning first-time offenders could pay roughly double what they do now.

“People aren’t sympathetic to drunk drivers,” Zerwas said, explaining why the increase is justified.

Those high fees, however, also risk saddling some drivers with a huge debt. Zerwas, after encouragement from legal rights groups, amended his bill to allow judges to waive all or part of the DWI fee increase in cases of indigence, based on the driver’s income level. Those below 125 percent of the poverty level, $32,188 for a family of four, can have the entire fine waived.

The hope is that by giving judges discretion, the program does not become another debt prison for poorer Texans.

“If we knew the unintended consequences, this would be a lot easier and we would not have them,” Zerwas said.

dug.begley@chron.com