LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- The CALL7 Investigators have learned that thousands of Colorado's most dangerous drivers, who should have lost their licenses after accumulating too many points, are still behind the wheel.

The reasons? Too few hearing officers and too much red tape.

Under state law, when a driver licensed in Colorado accrues 12 points in driving infractions in 12 months, or 6 points if the driver is under the age of 18, that driver's license is supposed to be revoked.

But first the driver is entitled to an administrative hearing, with a hearing officer. However, the CALL7 Investigators have discovered those hearings are backlogged as much as seven months, leaving the state's worst drivers on the road.

"He went to turn on 120th and Pecos. He went to turn and his light was green for an arrow," explained Diane Sueper, describing the crash that killed her 41-year-old husband, Dave.

"The other driver was a 16 year old. He was on his way to school and he ran a red light," Sueper said.

It happened on May 8.

Dave Sueper, a father of two, was killed on impact.

"He was such a good family man. A great dad," Sueper told CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia.

The 16-year-old driver pleaded guilty to a 4-point violation of careless driving resulting in death.

CALL7 Investigators discovered that the teenager already had 2 points on his license from a speeding violation just two weeks before the deadly crash. Because of his age, and because he had accumulated 6 points, the teenager should have lost his license.

"I thought that once he was sentenced and plead guilty that he would then lose his license," Sueper told Ferrugia.

Ferrugia asked, "And what did you find out?"

"I found out that he is still driving," said Diane Sueper.

CALL7 Investigators verified her statement and watched as the teenager drove to school. However, he is not doing anything wrong. The teenager is driving, legally, because he has not had an administration hearing with the Division of Motor Vehicles.

"Several months may pass by before you can actually get on the docket in the hearings section," said Matt Cook, the head of enforcement for the Colorado DMV.

"Several months can go by, but you don't actually lose your license in that period?" asked Ferrugia.

"That's correct. Until you have a hearing or fail to respond to the opportunity to have a hearing, you're still licensed," Cook said.

That does not apply to drunken drivers. State law requires that those cases get first priority and must have a hearing within 60 days of the conviction.

That means everyone else who has accumulated too many points is put in a queue, waiting for a hearing date with one of the 17 hearing officers in the state.

"How many people are in that queue?" Ferrugia asked Cook.

"I understand that number is around 3,000," Cook said.

And that is just the number DMV workers can see in their dated computer system. The actual number could be hundreds or even thousands more and the DMV has no idea how many of those drivers offended again while sitting in the queue.

"There are several thousand people who are bad, and dangerous drivers who are still driving. Is that a public safety issue?" asked Ferrugia.

Cook responded, "I would perceive it as a public safety issue, but those priorities are set by our general assembly."

The priorities Cook referenced include the kinds of offenses that are dealt with first, such as DUI or vehicular homicide, as well as the number of hearing officers working for the state.

Right now there are 17 hearing officers conducting about 34,000 hearings a year. That breaks down to about 2,000 hearings per officer per year.

The workload is huge and the result is that thousands of offenders are stuck in a queue and still driving.

Cook explained that one remedy would be to charge drivers with more serious offenses, like vehicular homicide or aggravated assault with a motor vehicle, where the law allows for the driver's license to be revoked immediately upon conviction.

"Before we came to you on this, did you have any idea about this issue?" asked Ferrugia.

Cook replied, "No."

"I'm absolutely flabbergasted and then I'm trying to figure out what broke down in the system -- that these people still have their licenses even after committing driving offenses that should have caused them to lose their license," said Colorado's newly selected Speaker of the House, Terrance Carroll.

"If you've reached a point where your license should be revoked because you've reached a number of violations, you've shown that you can't drive well. You've shown that you shouldn't be on the roadways and that you're a threat to everyone else on the highways or roadways and you shouldn't have your license," Carroll said.

Ferrugia asked Carroll, "What's the next step?"

"Now that I'm aware of the problem the next step is to get everyone in the same room together and figure out what we can do and what we can't do to move forward. The next step after that is to actually ask for a legislative audit to see if we can get a handle on this, and I do want to sit down with all the stakeholders to find out if there's a legislative fix we can have in January because I think we may need one," Carroll replied.

Diane Sueper told 7NEWS "The worst drivers in the state are still on the road and I feel helpless. I really feel like the system has let me down. Something needs to be changed. For all of us. Not even for me and my kids, but for you and everybody. It's not right."