carwreck.com: around Boston harbor...

The suspense is killing me. Well, sort of. What I'm taking about it that the other day I received a license suspension notice from the MA RMV. It says that due to my having five "surchargeable events" on my record they will suspend my license until I complete some sort of driver training program. The five events listed are two "surchargeable accidents" and two speeding tickets in 2001 and one speeding ticket in 2002.

There are a couple of problems with this notice however. I have a hearing scheduled if I want to appeal the suspension. Of course it is my first reaction to want to appeal the suspension. The problem is that I have a hearing scheduled for for the 2002 ticket which will not have taken place until after the hearing date for the suspension. So it is possible that I could be cleared of one of these five events and the suspension would be uncalled for. The second problem is that I am supposed to receive a packet of materials "within a few days" of this notice arriving. The material will further explain how the hearing will work. I am told that if the materials do not arrive within ten days I should call a certain number. Ten days from receiving the notice is after the scheduled hearing date!

The final problem I have with this notice is that I have no recollection nor records at all of one of the "surchargeable accidents." I called my insurance company to see if they knew what it was but they had only the same information; that an event had occurred. They suggested that I call the RMV. Upon calling the RMV they told me that a one-car event had taken place on that date and they provided me with an insurance company name and a claim number. That was all they could provide. I called the second insurance company and asked for information associated with that claim number. Surprisingly enough (not!), that claim number identified an accident on a different date, involving TWO cars (a Mercury and an Audi, neither are cars I've ever owned). They said I would have to call the RMV to get the problem resolved. Calling the RMV again resulted in denials of responsibility and I was given a special phone number for the Liaison to the RMV for that particular insurance company. By this time it had reached 4:45pm on Friday afternoon and people stopped answering their phones.

Now I have to wait until this coming week to further pursue this problem.