Diary of a checkpoint nightmare
OCEANSIDE: Diary of a checkpoint nightmare
Woman pays $591 for expired driver's license
By DAN SIMMONS - Staff Writer | Sunday, August 10, 2008 7:51 PM PDT ∞
47 comment(s) Increase Font Decrease Font email this story print this story OCEANSIDE ---- Tammy Bridges' problem with traffic checkpoints has nothing to do with racial profiling.
It's not about civil liberties, either.
Instead, it's their cost ---- a lesson she learned after paying $591 for being four months' overdue in renewing her driver's license.
"It's so excessive," said the stay-at-home mother of two. "The average family doesn't have that kind of money to spare, and we barely did ourselves."
Bridges said she forgot to renew her driver's license, which expired Jan. 2. She said she had gotten a renewal notice in December, but it got lost in the holiday shuffle of gifts, parties and working her at-home job, which she said picks up significantly during the holidays.
She said she didn't realize the oversight until April 16 ---- when she happened to get stopped at a traffic checkpoint on Melrose Drive. After checking her driver's license and seeing it had expired, an officer asked her to step out of the car.
"Are you taking me to jail?" Bridges asked.
"No, we're taking your car to jail," she said the officer replied.
The process is the same for everyone with an expired license, no matter how long it is past its renewal date, Oceanside police Lt. Kelan Poorman said.
If the driver is alone, police confiscate the car, issue a ticket and require the person to arrange a ride home.
If another licensed driver is in the car, that person can drive the car home, he said.
Bridges, 41, was alone and walked about two miles home, she said.
Her black Hyundai Tucson was towed to S & R Towing Inc. Her husband, Michael, came home from work to help try to rectify the situation.
That afternoon, Bridges said, they tried to take care of every detail and make up for what she admitted was a careless mistake.
Their first stop: Department of Motor Vehicles. They paid $28 to renew her driver's license.
Next stop: Oceanside Police Department. They paid $165 for a "vehicle release fee."
Poorman said the fee pays for processing and personnel costs associated with unlicensed drivers.
Next stop: S & R Towing Inc. They paid $185 for the tow from the checkpoint and $40 for a daily storage fee.
Drivers with an expired license may get their cars back as early as the same day, Poorman said.
However, people caught driving with a suspended or revoked license usually have their car impounded for 30 days before it can be reclaimed, he said.
The trip took the couple five hours during an afternoon when Michael Bridges was supposed to be at work.
At that point, after shelling out $418, Bridges said, she was just glad to be done with it ---- or so she thought.
"I felt terrible about it," she said. "We had big financial troubles this year and were just getting back to where we could start saving again."
In May, a letter arrived from the San Diego Superior Court.
Bridges, thinking she already had paid the fees related to the checkpoint, read only a third of the way down the page, stopping after this sentence: "If you have already taken care of this matter, please disregard this notice."
So she put it in a pile, not realizing that a few lines after she stopped reading was this sentence: "You must pay $358 on or before June 18, 2008."
The letter was announcing another charge, this one for the driving without a license.
On July 11, another letter arrived, this one from AllianceOne Receivables Management, Inc.
It announced that in addition to her unpaid $358 ticket, a $300 fine had been added because she failed to appear in court or pay bail by June 18 as spelled out in the previous letter ---- which was still in a pile collecting dust, she said.
Pay the $658 or appear in court within 10 days, the letter said, or "you may be subject to wage garnishment, bank levy, or both."
The $418 had now ballooned to $1,076. Bridges was incredulous.
"I would have showed up in court if I knew I had to," she said. "I guess I'm not an expert in life."
She went to court on a Monday morning in mid-July and presented her case to a judge. The judge waived the $300 fine and cut the $358 ticket to $173.
Final bill: $591.
Bridges said she was thankful her family could handle the cost without resorting to using credit cards. She actually made off on the cheaper end, because she retrieved the car from storage right away; it costs $40 every additional day it's there.
But she questioned the cost and hassle involved and lamented how destructive the situation would have been for other families.
"There are people who no way could have paid this," she said.
The ordeal caused at least one change for the family: Michael Bridges has assumed responsibility for all paperwork.
And Tammy Bridges said she won't forget to renew her driver's license.
Another parent at her kids' school mentioned that her license had been expired since January.
"Listen to my story," Bridges told her.
Contact staff writer Dan Simmons at (760) 740-5426 or dsimmons@nctimes.com.
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