Some of the topics I post about are a bit theoretical, in the sense that I talk about things I have observed but never actually experienced. This topic, seemingly dry, is real and personal.
In an earlier post, I discussed how parents can use traffic tickets as teaching moments, how a teen getting a citation for a moving violation is an opportunity for a parent to reinforce why traffic laws must be obeyed, and why respect for law enforcement is a critical part of our responsibility as citizens. In that post, I recommended that if a teen receives a fine or license suspension, he or she should “take the medicine” as quickly as possible.
There is another, somewhat hidden side after law enforcement issues a ticket, which is the time it can take from when the ticket is issued to when it is enforced through a fine or license suspension by a Motor Vehicle Department or the court system. Most states and some big cities have a central processing bureau, so that when the police issue a ticket, the ticket is sent to that bureau, which sends a notice of the violation to the teen driver’s home (whether parents of teen drivers should be notified at the same time is an interesting issue). If the punishment is only a monetary fine, the teen either pays the fine and that is the end of it, or goes to court to contest the fine, which may result in reduction or a deal with a prosecutor. In some states, paying the fine is an admission of wrongdoing that results in an automatic license suspension. If suspension is the enforcement, the driver either accepts the suspension, sends in the acknowledgement, has the license suspended, and then endures the no-license period, or the driver goes to court, seeking to have the suspension modified or reversed. Finally, in some states, a ticket or a repeat violation triggers a mandatory driver retraining, where the teen driver reports to the motor vehicle department or a driving school for a refresher.
But my point here is not how this all happens and which administrative system is best, but what should a parent do with a teen driver while the police, the motor vehicle department, the processing agency, and the court system sort all of this out?
I will reveal my answer by explaining why this topic is such a difficult one for me. In 2006, before Connecticut overhauled its teen driver laws, the only penalty for a teen’s first ticket was a fine, and for a second ticket, a fine and a mandatory four-hour retraining session. My son got his license in January 2006, got a ticket for a double lane change without signaling in April (paid the fine), and then in September got a second ticket for going 42 in a 25 MPH zone. He paid the fine for this second ticket, and then in October got a notice from the DMV that he had to attend a retraining class within 60 days of the notice or his license would be suspended. He put it off and off and off, and finally in mid-November scheduled the retraining for the morning of December 2nd. Then he crashed on the night of December 1 and died six hours before his class.
So again, the question: what should a parent do between the time a teen receives a ticket and whenever the government gets around to punishing that conduct? Several answers. First, this situation illustrates one key benefit of a teen driving contract. If a parent and teen have negotiated and signed one, it provides the first answer, an immediate suspension of driving for some period of time as agreed to in the contract, regardless of whether or when the government acts. (In my model contract, this immediate suspension is in addition to whatever government imposes, so the contract attaches a double whammy to misconduct.) Second is to realize that the issuance of ticket should be a loud alarm that a teen is at risk, especially if the violation involved something like speeding, illegal passengers, not wearing a seat belt, alcohol or drugs, etc.. In other words, don’t let the fact that the government takes time to impose a punishment lull you as a parent into taking the violation as anything less than a serious development requiring your own immediate discipline and increased oversight.
Lastly, as I urged in the earlier post, don’t fight the ticket or its consequences. In 2007, Massachusetts instituted a system of mandatory license suspensions (which Connecticut copied a year later). In the early going there were newspapers reports about parents, outraged that their teen’s license suspensions were going to make their lives less convenient, going to court to fight the suspensions. These parents, unfortunately, were badly misinformed about the dangers of teen driving.
Please don’t let the administrative delay that can follow your teen getting a ticket or citation cause you to let your guard down. If anything, it should be way, way up.
