A senior D.C. official told lawmakers on Tuesday that the city’s Department of Motor Vehicles never knew that the woman now facing murder charges for a fatal crash on Rock Creek Parkway had been convicted three times for driving under the influence, convictions that likely should have resulted in her driver’s license being revoked.

The claim came during a D.C. Council roundtable discussion on road safety, which coincided with the news this week that D.C. resident Nakita Marie Walker, 43, had been charged with three counts of second-degree murder for the mid-March crash that killed three people in another car. Walker had three prior DUI convictions in D.C. — in 2015, 2018, and 2020, the last of which was only sentenced last year — prompting questions from lawmakers about whether the DMV had taken steps to revoke her license or otherwise stop her from driving.

Lucinda Babers, the deputy mayor for operations and infrastructure who formerly led the D.C. DMV, told them they had received no notifications of any convictions from D.C. Superior Court, a claim that the court system is contesting.

“When I was at DMV, we worked very closely with D.C. Superior Court to ensure that they sent us the convictions in a timely manner because we were not getting them,” she said. “Unfortunately I just read of the individual involved in the Rock Creek Park crash and how D.C. Superior Court was being quoted as saying she had three DUIs. D.C. DMV had notification of none of them. So now D.C. DMV will go back out to D.C. Superior Court and say, what has happened? We did not get these notifications. Has the system broken down again? We’re not getting all the notifications and getting them in a timely manner.”

Depending on the circumstances, D.C. law says that along with other penalties, a driver convicted of DUI can lose their license for six months to two years, with the length of the revocation growing with additional convictions. It also specifies that the court must notify the city upon any conviction, with the DMV tasked with revoking a driver’s license and setting any conditions for a person to reclaim it. (In some cases, police who make an arrest can directly notify the DMV to start the license revocation process.)

After Walker’s conviction for the 2018 DUI, for example, she was sentenced to 15 days of jail, ordered to complete traffic safety and alcohol programs, submit to alcohol and drug testing, and install an interlock ignition device on any car she was driving that would prevent it from starting if she had consumed any alcohol. Those enhanced penalties came after prosecutors told a D.C. judge that they had learned that not only was Walker a repeat offender in D.C., but she had also racked up two driving-while-impaired charges in Northern Virginia in 2009 and 2010.

But it remains unclear whether Walker ever had a driver’s license revoked or reinstated. The D.C. DMV did not respond to questions about that on Wednesday, nor whether Walker completed required traffic safety programs or if anything in the DMV’s system would have been flagged when she registered the Lexus SUV that she was allegedly driving the night of the fatal crash.

According to Douglas Buchanan, a spokesman for D.C. Superior Court, any issues with communicating Walker’s DUI convictions were caused by the DMV’s system, not the court’s.

“The District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles receives daily data feeds from the D.C. Superior Court, informing them of the cases connected to defendants whose court outcomes may impact their driving privileges. Evidence has been shared with District officials, indicating the computer transmissions of information in the cases connected to Ms. Nakita Walker were each successfully shared with the D.C. DMV’s computer system,” he wrote in an email. “As far as we have been able to uncover, there are no computer issues with the D.C. Courts data and computer systems connected to the transmission of information regularly sent to the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles. The D.C. Courts remain ready and eager to meet with city representatives so that we are all on the same page — and able to work together in our effort to protect and ensure the safety of everyone we each serve.”

Asked about the situation on Wednesday, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that while she was still being briefed on what happened in Walker’s case, she would address any communication issues between the DMV and the court. “Whatever gaps there are we will fill them. This sounds like a technology solution, and a fix that could potentially make us safer on the road, so it will have my full attention,” she said.

It’s likely that the council will keep an eye on the issue. In a letter sent Wednesday, Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) asked Chief Judge Anita Josey-Herring for details on how exactly information on convictions for DUIs is shared and whether the court gets confirmation from the DMV that it has suspended or revoked a driver’s license in response to a conviction.

“The District experienced 25 traffic-related deaths in 2022 and reached a 14-year high of 40 traffic-related deaths in 2021.” he wrote. “The council is increasingly concerned that, in addition to poor road design that encourages high speeds, the problem is exacerbated by a failed system of traffic enforcement.”

This is the second instance in the fatal Rock Creek Parkway crash where advocates and lawmakers are asking whether the city could have done more ahead of time. In the wake of the crash, it was revealed that the Lexus Walker was driving had racked almost 40 traffic camera tickets worth some $12,000 in fines in a 10-month period, almost all of them for speeding. D.C. officials say they are limited in what they can do to find cars with an excessive amount of tickets.

And Walker is not alone: According to recent reporting by The Washington Post, more than 2,100 vehicles have 40 or more outstanding tickets, with one Maryland driver having racked up 339 tickets worth $186,000 in fines.