I got a speeding ticket on thursday morning trying to get a tape back for the morning show about a fundraiser for a little girl dying of cancer...
The cop nailed me...I was guilty and he went back to run my info while I sat on the side of the road staring at the front door of the station. I was hundreds of feet of my story making air. He finally came back and said "I have some really bad news for you Mr. Walsh. I have to confiscate your license because its been suspended due to an ‘insurance revocation.’"
"I don’t have insurance. I don't own a car. I sold my car two months ago," I said. "This is a company car and I'm under corporate insurance."
"I still have to take your license," he said. "You'll have to go to DMV this morning." They opened at 8. It was just past 5. I still had to get the tape to make air for the little girl.
"What is an insurance revocation?" I asked. He didn't know. He couldn't explain it. He just had to take my license because the computer said my license was suspended for an "insurance revocation." Again, I reitirate, that he didn't know what that meant, nor did I as he took away my VA license, the one most important thing I need to keep my job.
He let me drive back to the station, across the street from where he pulled me over. The tape made air, but I didn't have a license anymore, and it wasn't even 7.
There is a DMV remote site at our courthouse in downtown Norfolk. I'm supposed to do a story about the convenience of such a facility, where the regular business center takes hours to get through. I arrived by lift of my reporter in my vehicle to the courthouse a half hour before their opening of business. When the metal gates finally slid open, the woman's greeting set the pace...
"wHAT?"
"Yes, I got pulled over this morning and the officer took away my license..."
"We don't deal with licenses here."
"What?"
"We don't do licenses."
"Oh," I wondered confused reading the D-M-V letters on all the walls. "You are the DMV, right?"
"Yes.....you have to go to the main office on WHATEVER road."
"Can you tell me why my license was taken?"
"NO!!!"
"You can't look it up on the computer?"
"NO!!!"
"WHY???"
"Because we don't do licenses."
I broke through the door and made my way across the city on foot back to my work. It was about a twenty-minute hike in the early morning and I thought about the "convenience" of the satellite bureau I had just experienced and how I couldn’t wait to do a story about the facility. I had so many questions to ask now.
I built a nice sweat trekking across the city and passed the place I’d been pulled over, cussing both the police department and DMV. They had fucked up my life on this Thursday morning and so far, resolution of the problem seemed very distant.I got a ride from a fellow co-worker to the main DMV offices while my company truck sat idle in the parking lot..
When I got to the main DMV branch I was dreading the experience. The last time I had been here was nearly five years ago when I first moved to Virginia. It took about five hours for me to get through the line and get my license changed from Pennsylvania to Virginia and new tags for the old Cadillac that got me here. The parking lot didn’t look too crowded, so I felt a little better.
I got in line and was corralled through the process, waiting for my number to ring out. There were people who had come in behind me that were getting through and gone. They must have been in a different category of need I fooled myself. I sat near a window where and angry looking woman worked. ‘Please don’t be her’ I told myself until my number, after nearly three hours, finally rang at her window. I sucked it up and tried to be as agreeable as possible.
I told her what happened and she looked into her computer, the expression of unhappiness never changing.
"You have an ’85 cadillac that you didn’t have insurance for?"
"Well, I did. The tags expired and I canceled my insurance while it sat in my driveway rusting away until I sold it two months ago for $200."
"When your insurance was canceled your license was suspended." I knew this was wrong because I had gotten a speeding ticket several months ago and the cop had said nothing about my license being suspended. I pressed on.
"Ok…so what do I have do to get my license back. Do I have a fine? What? I have to work."
She hit some keys and spit out an answer. "It will cost you $585 and you have to get SR-22 insurance."
I felt every muscle in my body want to strangle her. "WHAT!!!" I calmed. "Why do I have to get insurance? I don’t own a car! I told you I sold it! I sold it for two hundred FREAKIN’ dollars!"
"You kept the tags after you canceled your insurance. You needed to return your tags. You were sent a letter."
"I was never sent a letter, the tags expired a year ago, and why do I have to get insurance if I don’t even own a vehicle."
"You need the insurance to reinstate youir license and must maintain it in order to keep it."
"Even though I don’t have a vehicle, I have to have insurance."
"Yes…NEXT!!!"
There was an insurance company conveniently set up next door. The woman smiled when I walked in. She’d seen a million people like me with the look I had on my face of pure hatred.
"I need SR-22 insurance because I had a car rust in my driveway for a year." She explained this was common and that I had to keep the insurance policy for the next THREE years in order to keep my license in Virginia. It covers me for absolutely NOTHING, yet will cost me $78 a month.
"I don’t even own a car." I bought the policy, went back over and had to wait again, and then finally got my picture taken for my new license, which cost me $663 plus $78 month for the next three years I live in Virginia, which will total to about $3000, just to keep my license so I can keep my job even though I don’t own a vehicle and now have insurance that provides me absolutely no coverage. I didn’t smile in the picture.
I could have lost my job. I could have had my career severely damaged. And now, I have SR-22 on my driving record, which a friend pointed out, could cause problems with me finding a new job as a photojournalist at another station closer to the kids. I might now be stuck here because of this. I am now in the same category as drunk drivers. I didn’t do anything wrong but let a $200 car rust away in my driveway. The system has completely failed me this week. If I hadn’t had the means to get the money I would be without a job right now. Everything about this scenario is completely wrong. If I cancel the insurance, my license will be suspended again and I’m not sure if this will follow me where I might go next.
Because of a car I bought for $500 and sold for $200.
The system failed me. The system raped me. There is nothing I can do about this, except maybe warn one of you, before it happens to you next.
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