Beware the Spot Check

It's amazing how easy it is to break the law and not realize it. My son just returned from British Columbia where he spent the winter. Actually he was in BC for most of last year with the exception of a few months last fall. So he's back and he's driving home from a visit in Fredericton in a car that still has BC license plates on it. Two of his buddies are in the car with him and they get pulled over at an RCMP spot-check in Oromocto.

It turns out when they check the records, my sons car is no longer legally registered. He hasn't registered the car in New Brunswick yet but he and I both thought the BC registration is still valid. Apparently British Columbia has public auto insurance and it's tied to the vehicle registration. When he got home his BC insurance was about to expire so he insured the car here. So he has proper insurance but because it wasn't BC insurance his registration is no longer valid.

After being told this by the RCMP officer my son called me and I spoke to the officer. He explained the situation and said because the car wasn't legally registered he'd have to take it off the road. And that's what happened. The car was towed and the plates were taken off and thrown on the back seat of the police car. My son said there were a pile of license plates that had been taken from unregistered vehicles stopped during the spot check.

I just want to say that the RCMP officer was polite and helpful and just doing his job. He explained to both of us exactly what had to be done to register the car and get it back on the road. This is where the story takes an interesting turn.

The next day my son takes my car and drives up to Oromocto to do what he has to do to register his car. And wouldn't you know it he gets stopped by the same cop at the same spot check. A few minutes later I get a phone call from the same said officer who says to me 'You aren't going to believe this but your registration is expired too". Not just that. My insurance card was also out of date. By this time I'm sure the cop was thinking... "What is wrong with this family?"

Here's what happened. The registration had expired about five days before this. We got the card in the mail weeks ago but completely forgot about it. In the same way the new insurance card arrived but again I didn't put it in the car. The officer could have nailed me big time but he didn't. He said he didn't want to do it again so he gave me the chance to register the car by phone right away. I didn't know I could do this. I called Service New Brunswick on a toll free line, gave them my license plate number and insurance information and paid by credit card. I called up that kind RCMP officer with a confirmation number so he knew the registration went through and I was off the hook for a pretty hefty fine. I owe a big thank you to that unnamed and understanding cop.

So the moral of the story is ... don't file away or ignore all those letters you get from the Motor Vehicle Branch or your insurance company. Oh yea... and don't forget about your vehicle inspection sticker either. It was set to expire too but fortunately I had the inspection done just a day before the spot check.