There are lots of reasons someone may have their driver’s license suspended or revoked.
Too many points from speeding and other violations. A DUI conviction. Operating a vehicle without insurance.
It can also happen if another state says you didn’t pay a ticket from decades ago.
The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC), in an April 23 letter, told James Tubman he was ineligible to renew his license.
“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.”
He’d have 30 days to get the other state to issue a “no match letter” saying he wasn’t the person with the violation, or he’d have to otherwise make things right with the other state and get a letter saying so.
The Flemington man said he recalled the incident. It was 1991. He was in the last days of a vacation in Tombstone, Arizona, heading north to Scottsdale on a two-lane road, he said.
“For a full 25 miles I was in back of a very slow moving vehicle. 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,” Tubman said, calling it a speed-trap. “I got a ticket, one of two in all my years of motoring.”
Jim Tubman got a speeding ticket in 1991 after merging from a two-lane road to a highway in Arizona.Canva illustration for NJ.com/Google Maps
All these years later, he admits he’s not sure if the ticket was paid. He said his late wife paid the family’s bills at the time, and while he keeps records going back seven years, a 33-year-old check would not be in his files.
“I’ve renewed my license many times over these 33-plus years and there has never been a question,” he said. “After all this time, Arizona is saying that I have an open citation.”
But clearing it up would be anything but easy.
“Since the end of April, I’ve tried to resolve this matter with the determination of Ahab following the white whale,” he said.
LOOKING FOR A FIX
Tubman said he first reached out to court officials in Benson, Arizona — the scene of the crime — and they advised him to send an email to the justice of the peace, asking for leniency.
He did that on Aug. 30, he said, but no one ever responded.
As the 30-day deadline neared, Tubman said, he asked his congressman for help, but that didn’t do anything, so he reached out to Gov. Phil Murphy’s office.
The administration put him in touch with an MVC supervisor who Tubman said was helpful on the New Jersey side, but Tubman would still need to reach the right folks in Arizona.
So he called that state’s motor vehicle agency to ask how much he owed. It was $101.15. He said he sent a check immediately, asking Arizona to expedite getting him the letter MVC said it needed.
He waited 11 days, and while his check was cashed, he didn’t receive the letter, so he called again. By then it was May 14.
There would be no letter because the state’s updates are made to the nationwide database, he said he was told.
“I asked if the person was sure that NJMVC would see that I’m cleared,” he said. “She said, `No, not yet. Because you still owe us a $10 processing charge.’”
But that, too, was a problem. After numerous attempts to pay the charge online with a PIN he was given by Arizona, the transaction wouldn’t go through.
So he called yet again, this time reaching a representative who said she’d stay on the phone until it went through.
Thirty minutes later and a bunch more attempts finally yielded success.
“I have never been as happy to spend $10,” he said.
Tubman said he reached out to his new MVC contact, asking for the database to be checked. He didn’t hear back right away, and concerned about the 30-day deadline, he asked Bamboozled for help.
After reviewing Tubman’s documentation, we asked MVC if it could take a look.
A few hours later, he heard from MVC.
“I am cleared! He told me that no further action is required of me,” a grateful Tubman said.
So what triggered the alert from Tubman’s old ticket? We figured it was his automatic driver’s license renewal, which he said he mailed to MVC with a check for $24 on April 10 — about two weeks before the warning letter came.
Indeed, that’s what happened.
MVC couldn’t speak to Tubman’s specific issue for privacy reasons, but it said the state uses PDPS before driver’s licenses are issued or renewed. It’s prohibited by federal regulations from issuing or renewing licenses if a driver’s privileges are sanctioned in another state, spokesman William Connolly said, adding that there are no time limits involved.
“The customer must resolve any PDPS issue with the other state before the issuance or renewal can proceed in New Jersey,” he said.
Let Tubman’s experience be a lesson to the rest of us. If you have an outstanding violations — pretty much anywhere — make it right before there are unexpected consequences.
In the digital world, most things will catch up with us. If you need to reach another state about a ticket you believe could be outstanding, MVC supplies a list of state agencies.
“I feel badly done that a single traffic citation well over three decades ago can result in suspension of driving privileges,” Tubman said. “If I had robbed the Tombstone Bank on that same day in 1991, I’d be a free man by 1999.”
“Catching scofflaws is fine but a new state policy should not look back forever. A one, two, or even seven year sweep back into time would seem fair,” he said.
Stories by Karin Price Mueller
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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @KPMueller.