‘There is either moral culpability or legal liability on them,’ the Placer County DA said, ‘and they are actively seeking to prevent that from being disclosed.’

When the issue finally made it to court this year, the attorney representing the agency made a shocking admission: The DMV had no records of any investigation into a longtime reckless driver who killed a 23-month-old boy. The agency didn’t even appear to have held a hearing before deciding it was fine to let Linardos stay on the road.

Placer prosecutors’ quest for answers underscores how little action the state takes against deadly drivers.

Though state law authorizes the DMV to investigate drivers involved in a crash that kills or badly injures someone, agency records suggest the DMV rarely uses that power. Data provided to CalMatters show that, from 2022 through 2024, the agency opened just 3,300 investigations into drivers for their role in a fatal or serious-injury crash, a time in which California tallied nearly 56,000 such collisions.