Scott Hewitt is the exception.

We always knew it intuitively, but now data analysis conducted by Sun Journal staff writer Kathryn Skelton and published Aug. 28, proves it.

Hewitt is a bad driver, a terrible driver, a hazard to everyone on the highways. The truck driver’s license has been suspended 22 times, and he carries 63 convictions. He’s been involved in two separate accidents while driving tractor-trailers that resulted in people being killed, including a July 29 collision.

That fatality has brought incredible scrutiny onto the state and prompted new efforts to toughen sanctions against drivers who repeatedly break the law. Gov. Baldacci has created a high-level task force that is developing new countermeasures against repeat offenders, and several lawmakers have promised get-tough legislation. With potentially thousands of drivers out there ignoring the law, putting more teeth in punishment might be the only effective enforcement left.

But most professional truck drivers are just that – professional.

After examining available records from all the crashes involving tractor-trailers in 2005, the Sun Journal found that, for most, it was their first wreck. Of 241 cases, only 42 had been involved in other crashes, and just one was charged with driving with a suspended license (the charge was eventually dropped). Because it takes time to process accident reports, some were not calculated in the analysis. Hewitt’s latest crash, for example, was not included.

But to put things in perspective, Hewitt’s driver’s license has been suspended 22 times. The other 241 drivers whose records were studied had only 47 suspensions among them.

Most tractor-trailer drivers obey the law and operate safely. But the state estimates that there are more than 8,000 drivers out there who have had their licenses suspended more than 14 times. Making sure they stay off the road is a good use of state resources that will help make everyone safer.