I was in a minor accident in December 2000, pain-in-the-ass but no big wup. 2 months later I received a letter from the Colorado Department of Revenue stating that I had been in 2 accidents in the last 3 years, which is total bullshit. By my reccolection it had to be at least 6 or 7 years since my last accident. I called them and they said they would pull the microfilm of the ticket and check to see if it is correct. Today I called them back after they had time to pull the ticket and they confirmed that the other accident occured in Dec of 1999, the ticket is for “failure to signal” and supposedly it is clearly marked as “accident”. Problem being I don’t even remember getting a ticket at that time, let alone an accident.
Looking back in the mists of time I do clearly remember a string of bad luck where I got 3 tickets in Jan-Feb 2000( 1 month after the supposed accident), I remember being real hard on myself because at the first ticket in January it had been almost 3 years since I had received a ticket. Additionally, I sold my roommate the car I drove between Oct 1996 and Nov 2000 (it is still “in the family”), I know for a fact that I was never involved in an accident with that car. Speeding tickets yes, accidents no!
So, as a result of this bogus accident I will have to retake the written and driving tests or I will lose my drivers license. I can handle that but it bothers me is this accident is a permanent bad mark on my record, that I did not commit. What happens if I get in another wreck a year down the line, will I lose my license?:eek:
So I still want to dispute this and have it resolved that I was not involved in a wreck on the disputed date. The only way I can think is to call my insurance company and have them verify that no accident or claim was ever reported to them.
Any suggestions as to how to handle this?
Thank You!
the Insurance people can only confirm you never asked for reimbursement for damages, not that an accident never happened.
The rest seems muddled to me (you sorta remember getting tickets, car may or may not have been yours?)
I’d do this:
Document ownership of the car on the date in question.
Get a copy of the ticket.
Check your own records to see if you paid a traffic ticket around then.
If you didn’t pay for a traffic ticket, didn’t own the car and the ticket itself seems less than clear (marked vs/ clearly marked accident), then I’d assemble all of the pieces together and go to the appeals division of Secretary of State or whatever, and see if you can schedule something.
If you seemed to have paid a fine, see if it’s the right amount for a ticket vs. an accident.
In addition to what wring suggested, I’d run a check on the VIN of that car, if you can (there are many website where this can be done). This would help you figure out when the car title was transfered (it was transfered when you got rid of the car wasn’t it??), and accident reports should also show up (with dates).
Oct 1996: purchase red Audi
Dec 1999: disputed ticket for accident
Jan 2000: string of bad luck, clearly remember thinking what shitty luck because I have not had a ticket for 3 years.
Nov 2000: Buy teal Audi - sell red Audi(which has never been in a wreck) to roommate.
Dec 2000: accident with new car - my fault
Feb 2000: “notice of re-examination” because of 2 accidents.
Wring gave you an approach for trying to get to the bottom of it. I have an alternative thought: you say the disputed ticket was for Dec 1999, and you had a string of tickets in Jan 2000? Is it possible that your memory is faulty?
There’s lots of possibilities here, including that the cop marked “accident” instead of “violation” for the failure to signal. You should ask for copy of the police report.
If they are wrong, you want to try to assemble evidence to justify your claim (for example, if the police report doesn’t show another car, etc) and send it to the appropriate authority (presumably the Secretary of State) to appeal for correcting the record.
[judgement call] Frankly, if you’ve had three (or perhaps four) tickets and two (or perhaps one) accident in a year, then I think you should be taking the drivers tests again. Getting tickets is very rarely “shitty luck” – unless you mean it was shitty luck that there was a cop around when you broke the law. Getting the ticket is a result of bad driving or bad driving habits. Wake up, kuwatto, before the next accident does serious damage to you or to someone else. [/judgement call]
Why don’t you call the Colorado Department of Revenue back and ask them what information you need to dispute it? They could probably tell you exactly what evidence they need and where you can get it. You might even be able to fix it over the phone with them if it is just a technical or record keeping error.
As an aside, what does the Department of Revenue have to do with your driving record? Is there not a Department of Motor Vechicles in Colorado or is that an odd North Carolina thing?
When I bought my Datsun 280ZX, I held on to my Nissan Maxima for a a few months, then gave it away to the VoA (Volunteers of America). It made room in my garage for the Z, and I didn’t really feel like fixing the Maxima anyway.
Everything was fine until a few months later when my I started getting letters and summons from traffic courts in places that I hadn’t even been.
It turns out that even though I signed over the title to VoA, they never bothered to register it; so in addition to “expired registration” tickets, I was now guilty of some parking violations - you know, the kind where the driver’s not around to show his license to the cops be identified as a guy different from the one to whom the car is registered.
Take a close look at those accidents. Was it you in your car, or was it someone else in a car registered to you?
