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A TENURED driver only received two tickets the entire time he’s had a license – one was issued 33 years before, and came back to bite him.
He kept records of all payments made seven years to date – but had no record of the 33-year-old ticket.
A disgruntled driver was denied a license renewal due to an overdue ticket from another state issued over 30 years ago[/caption]
Due to the open citation, he was barred from renewing his license[/caption]
The automatic renewal process for driver’s licenses was ultimately to blame[/caption]
Jim Tubman, a Fleming, New Jersey driver, takes pride in only having ever been issued two tickets for his life.
One, he recalled, was during a road trip he took with his wife to Arizona in 1991, when he was caught in what he called a “speed trap.”
“For a full 25 miles I was behind a very slow-moving vehicle,” Tubman told NJ.com.
“When I finally merged onto I-10, I sped up and within 30 seconds, I saw a patrol car’s flashing lights emerging from the ditch. I got a ticket, one of two in all my years of motoring.”
He returned home to New Jersey, paid the road law violation, and went on with his life without issue.
Flash forward to April 2024 when his past came back to haunt him with a letter from the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC).
“Your driver record reflects a match in the Problem Driver Pointer System (PDPS) which maintains a record of all individuals whose driving privilege is suspended or otherwise sanctioned in another state,” the letter read.
It wasn’t until nearly a month later that he received a letter from Arizona saying he had an unpaid ticket.
“I’ve renewed my license many times over these 33-plus years and there has never been a question,” said Tubman.
“After all this time, Arizona is saying that I have an open citation.”
He said his wife was in control of the couple’s finances at the time he received the citation, and assumed she’d paid it.
With no way of going back 30-plus years, however, he had no real way of knowing.
Tubman assumed the matter could be resolved by simply paying the balance – but he was wrong.
“Since the end of April, I’ve tried to resolve this matter with the determination of Ahab following the white whale,” he said.
I feel badly done that a single traffic citation well over three decades ago can result in suspension of driving privileges, If I had robbed the Tombstone Bank on that same day in 1991, I’d be a free man by 1999.
Jim Tubman
After contacting officials in Benson, Arizona, where the ticket was issued in 1991, he was directed to send an email to the justice of the peace office to ask for leniency.
He hadn’t heard back since the end of August 2023.
So, he reached out to Governor Phil Murphy’s office, who was able to refer Tubman to the necessary officials in New Jersey.
It was the Arizona officials that proved difficult to track down.
Tubman contacted the motor vehicle agency and was then told he had a balance of $101.15, which he immediately paid by check, asking for a letter he could show to the MVC to expedite his renewal process.
His check was cashed two weeks later, but no letter arrived.
At the MVC, Tubman was told the process still couldn’t be completed due to a missing $10 processing charge.
Online, he was given a PIN by Arizona to access the payment site for the ticket, and it took several attempts to pay the fee, but it was finally processed.
“I have never been as happy to spend $10,” he said.
How to prepare for the DMV
Here are some ways to streamline your DMV experience:
- Check the DMV website for your state to see if the task can be done completely online. Many processes can now be done online, like renewing a vehicle’s registration or changing an address. Otherwise, several processes can be started online and finished at an in-person location, like renewing a driver’s license.
- Schedule an appointment. While walk-ins are available at all locations, having an appointment time can help reduce frustrating wait times.
- Check the DMV’s website to ensure you have all the necessary forms for the task.
- Get there early. Since many people prefer to try and tackle simple tasks on their lunch breaks or days off, showing up early can mean you’re only one of a few.
- Eat before you go or bring a snack. Since wait times can exceed expectations, bring some form of sustenance.
- Be positive. The process is temporary.
As it turns out, it was due to the automatic driver’s license renewal process that ended up digging into Tubman’s past, as part of a now “scofflaws” crackdown on drivers with unpaid tickets.
“The customer must resolve any PDPS issue with the other state before the issuance or renewal can proceed in New Jersey,” said MVC spokesperson William Connolly.
Tubman was relieved to finally be able to renew his license but felt the law may need some fine-tuning.
“Catching scofflaws is fine but a new state policy should not look back forever,” he said.
“A one, two, or even seven-year sweep back into time would seem fair. I feel badly done that a single traffic citation well over three decades ago can result in suspension of driving privileges, If I had robbed the Tombstone Bank on that same day in 1991, I’d be a free man by 1999.”
