DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

I got a nice little shock when I came home from Bremerton last night, and I'm not really sure what options I have, or how to proceed in dealing with this.

So I check my email last night and there's one from my insurance agent, and says I need to contact them immediately... below the email is a notification that my insurance policy is being cancelled as of August 01, 2007. The reasons stated are because of an accident (me wrecking my Chevy Colorado on 2/24/06), a ticket on the same date for "Speed greater than reasonable or prudent", and that my license is currently suspended or revoked.



First of all... I'm not aware of any ticket. I was not ticketed at the scene of the accident, and the cops gave me a ride to work so it couldn't be a result of me leaving the scene of the accident too early. I have no real way of knowing even what police department would have issued a ticket, or how they would have done this after the fact without me evening knowing it.

Second of all... There is no possible way for anyone to prove what my speed was, so I can't see how I could be ticketed for that. No witnesses other than the guy I hit (who was in front of me and by his own admission didn't even see me until I hit him), no cops there, and the accident was caused because I slid on ice going downhill. It was a very icy morning, and there were literally hundreds of accidents that morning because of it.

Third.. I've gotten nothing mailed to me.. I have no notification of my license being suspended or revoked, and this is the first I've possibly even heard of it. I don't even know if it really is suspended / revoked.

The only thing I could really assume at this point is that if this is all true, it's because my driver's license has a different address on it than where I live.... they would have mailed this all to the wrong address... I didn't respond because I didn't get it... they found me at fault because I didn't make their court date... and suspended my license because I didn't pay the fine.

So the question is... if I really was ticketed for this, and that caused my license to get suspended... what options do I have to fight that at this point, 1 year and 5 months after the fact?

I really don't want to lose my insurance company because they have been freakin awesome... but State Farm is really a pain when it comes to things like this. I have a feeling that it will take me longer to fix all this than I have before my insurance cancellation with them.

1BAD95Z

I would call the DMV and see about your license first off. Then maybe the Seattle PD or King County PD to find out about the so called ticket. I'm sure that if you didn't get ticketed at the scene and they gave you a ride to work, you should be able to go in front of a judge and tell him all of this, and that your address is different from your license, and you should be able to get it dropped to get your license back.

I can't believe it's been this long and you are just now hearing about it, but if they don't have your current address that's probably why.

HitmanLSX

Zeke you can check the status of your drivers license here https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/ddl/dsd/

The rest of it I'm not sure on

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

Yeah, I'm kind of amazed that this just now popped up. The last time I went through this with State Farm they dropped me about a month after the accident. But yeah, my first step before anything is getting my license back if it really is suspended... I'm not going to even be able to function without a driver's license, that would be totally screwed. No way I could even get to work.

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

Here's what I get back...

YOU MAY PRINT THIS SCREEN FOR YOUR RECORDS
The following search result is based on the license number entered.

Should you have any questions regarding this result, please contact Customer Service at 360 902-3900, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. PST.

Date and Time of Inquiry: 07/08/2007 11:20:55:02 (Pacific Time Zone)

Transaction Number: *********


Personal Information:
License/Permit/Identification Card Number: ************
License Expiration: 2008

Valid License, Permits, and Endorsements:

Driver License No
Instruction Permit No
Motorcycle Endorsement No
Trike-Sidecar Endorsement No
Motorcycle, Trike-Sidecar Endorsement No
Motorcycle Permit No
Commercial Driver License No
Commercial Driver License Permit No
Identification Card No

Crisisman

iTrader: (1)

Being a bus driver, I've heard this story before. What I quoted above is probably right on the money. You are legally responsible to notify the DOT of an address change within like 15 days or something like that. If you didn't, you're options are limited.

My advice, follow-up on it IMMEDIATELY and see if you can get a judge to be kind. Don't count on it though.

Good luck man.

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

Yeah, I'm probably going to have to go with another insurance company for a while, and just bite the bullet until it goes off my record. I don't imagine that I'm going to have many options to fight it just because it's so long after the fact. No idea on that.

I won't really know a lot more until tomorrow morning.

MrsSeaHawk

On a day like that when there's tons of stuff going on, they'll write tickets and mail them after the fact. And they will mail them to your address of record, which you're required by law to keep current. Every notice they would have sent you would have gone to the address on record on your license. Contact whomever lives at the address you have on your license and ask them if they got mail for you.

Just a word of caution here. If you had citations issued to you and you failed to appear, regardless of the cause, it's possible that you could also have a warrant out for your arrest. Get thee a lawyer, ASAP. Have them do the legwork for you. If you show up at a police department to figure out what happened, and you do have a warrant, it will be off to jail with you. They will not release that information to you over the phone in most cases.

I know this leaves you totally screwed, but don't drive. If you get stopped for any reason, they'll tow your car. That would make things even worse. Just be glad you found out about this from your insurance company and not from a random traffic stop ...

Also, you won't be able to even get insurance until you get the suspension taken care of, so get on that ASAP.

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

Well, the big problem that I have now is that if I can't drive, I can't get to work, and I can't just not go or work from home.

HitmanLSX

Yeah according to their site your license isn't valid at the moment, had that happen to me during the snow storms when I didn't get the notification of my new court date and didn't show up because I didn't get it. Got it all cleared up within a few days but still not fun finding out your license is suspended.

Rebel_Bowtie

Most Courts in King County have a day that accepts walk-in cases for those with warrents. They will not arrest you if you show up for court or pay the ticket off. If you go to court the judge has the ability to reinstate your license, and if they won't you should be able to get an 'Occupational License' to get to work.

As for the ticket, you will be liable since you failed to change your address (I've had this problem). RCW 46.20.205: Change of address or name.

I would recommend calling the number from the License status; "Should you have any questions regarding this result, please contact Customer Service at 360 902-3900, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. PST." They will be able to tell you what court the ticket is through and should be able to provide the number. Call the court and find out when they accept walk-ins for Failure To Appears and explain your situation to the judge. You will be at fault for the citation since it's been so long and you didn't respond, even though you never actually got the ticket, but you'll get a chance to plea case to get your license back.

For any laws you want to know about they are publicly listed at:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx

Direct Link to Title 46 (Motor Vehicle):
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46

Hope you can get it resolved without any issues!

firehawk618

iTrader: (14)

Getting stuck in our wonderful DMV system sucks. Once you're in it's very hard to get out. This is from my personal experience. Had my license suspended / revoked many MANY times when I was much younger.

Hopefully you'll get it all worked out.

Rottluver

iTrader: (3)

As far as the "speeding" ticket. Cali has the same law (different title) and they both basically say that you have to be going at a speed that is "safe for the conditions at that time & place"......and if you slid on ice (which you probably couldn't even see) then you are, by definition, at fault for being at an unsafe speed for those conditions. The "proof" is that you hit someone with no other factors involved....no mechanical issues on your car, you had not been drinking, etc. Also you hit someone in front of you which means you were either following too close or going at an "unsafe speed". Either way, according to the law, you are at fault.

In 90% (+) of those cases (ESPECIALLY during busy times like those frozen mornings that day where there were hundreds of accidents), the information is taken by the Officer/s doing the accident investigation, the report is written and the traffic supervisor or the City/County Prosecutor makes a decision as to whether or not you get cited. At that point, a citation is mailed to your address of record with DOT. That can be up to a month - 6 weeks after the fact. If you indeed do not have your current address on file, which the Court will see as your fault - you moved and didn't notify in the required time frame, then it would have been mailed to your old address with a court date on it and obviously you would have no way of knowing that.

As far as what Agency, it will be whoever took your information after the crash, they are the ones handling the event and would have been the ones who issued the citation most likely. Also if you have a copy of the accident report then it will say who the Agency is that handled it. You may have even received a business card from the Officer who took the report with a Case # on it. Chances are better than 50% that you do have a traffic warrant for Failure to Appear, given the info you laid out. Where I come from, we would just write a new citation (with a new court date) for someone if we ran across them in the field unless they were being arrested for other things anyway. Very rarely would we book for that kinda ****-ant thing. If places up here have an "Amnesty Day" where you can go in and take care of little warrants then I would jump on that ASAP. Or if you can show up to the Traffic Court for whatever County the citation/crash was in, then generally you can handle 3 things at once....the warrant, the ticket and the suspended license.

Again, as others have said, you will want to confirm this over the phone just to be on the safe side but it shouldn't be that hard to clear up.


Good luck.

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

Okay, so here's what I found out this morning...

My license is definitely suspended.

City of Tukwila was the department that issued the ticket, which was for "Too Fast For Conditions". I slid on ice... if I was MOVING I was going too fast for conditions. Fine was $277.07, I paid it this morning, they said it would probably take a week to get my license unsuspended.

I got information on what I can do to get the ticket taken off my record, but they said since it's so long after the fact I may be screwed there. The issue in my eyes is not whether I was "at fault", because I agree the accident was my fault... I just think the "too fast for conditions" thing is pure BS. The only way I could have driven slow enough for the conditions was to have stayed home, and I didn't have that option if I wanted to keep my job.

My insurance company said that I was probably being dropped for a suspended license and that I should be able to keep my coverage once I have everything straightened out. They don't know yet if the ticket will be a deal breaker, and I know I won't have enough time to get that resolved before they drop me... but I'm gonna do what I can.

I'll at least have enough paperwork by the weekend that I'll be able to race on Friday, and that's all I care about.

Rottluver

iTrader: (3)

Congrats. Sounds like things are looking up for ya in this area.

Rebel_Bowtie

A lot of times you can get proof that the citation was resolved and fax it to the DOL to speed up some time. The courts will send it to the DOL by mail which is what takes so long, at least in my experience.

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

I'm one step ahead of you there. Anything I can do to get this resolved quicker, that's all that much better.

My insurance company also emailed me back and said that if I can get this taken care of by next week, they won't drop my coverage.... so that's awesome. I don't want to lose them, they have taken good care of me.

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

Looks like I have my license back, as of this morning. Everything is showing up good again, and my insurance company is not going to drop me.

Whew.

Rawr256

What happened with the ticket?

I know my cousin neglected a ticket he got for no insurance, his excuse for paying it was "I thought it was one of those, pay whenever you want things." A $250 ticket that could have been fixed if he spent that much on cheapo insurance coverage and showed he was insured turned into a $875 total ticket, and a $570 impound fee for them impounding his CRX, that was dubbed the ShitRX in the house.

Glad to hear that it seems to have worked out with no problems!

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

I paid the ticket... $277.07

My second step was to update my license so it has the correct address, then I have to go back and see about getting the ticket removed from my record. That isn't all that big of an issue, though, because it's already a year and a half old, and in another year and a half it will be off my record.