The Price of Chocolate Ice Cream

Once upon a time there was a smart, responsible young lady of 16 years with a provisional driver’s license.  She was spending the night at her friend’s house and around 11PM they decided they wanted chocolate soft serve ice cream.  The only place with that product open at that time of night was a McDonald’s out by the highway.  They jumped in the car and drove out to get their ice cream.  After sitting there eating for a while they finally finished and left at about 12:30AM.  A few blocks later they stopped at a red light and a police car pulled up alongside.  The lady realized her license only allowed her to drive until midnight and she had exceeded her time limit.  She became nervous and anxious.  She watched the stop lights intently.  The left turn signal turned green but not the light in front of her.  It was too late.  She saw green and drove ahead.  Immediately the police pulled her over and issued her a ticket for a Provisional Operator’s Permit violation and instead of writing “Failure to Yield” on her other ticket, she was given the dreaded “Failure to Comply.”  That is the equivalent of refusing to take breathalyzer test and carries a date in court.  After hyperventilating for a few minutes, she drove back to her friend’s house and cried all night.  The next day she informed her parents and they had to go out and hire a lawyer.  After the county district attorney wanted to make an example out of her, the family’s lawyer was able to able to get the penalty reduced to a $50.00 fine in their court appearance.  That young lady was my daughter and my wife and I thought everything was dismissed.  That was a year and a half ago.  When our auto rates went up we were told by our agent that everyone’s had and they were just high because of so many claims against insurance companies for hail damage.  It is time to renew our insurance again and I find myself still disgusted by the bill so I asked my multi-line agent to search some other companies.  I even plan to call a few myself.  Then the land mine is uncovered.  The DMV still shows a “Failure to Comply” on my daughter’s driving record.  I call the lawyer and he says it should not have been recorded that way but once the court has filed it, there is nothing he can do.  The DMV won’t change her driving record without a court order and as it turns out, that is what we pled “No Contest” to in order to get the $50.00 fine.  It still goes down as a conviction.  I’m told by my insurance agent that companies don’t even want to touch someone with a “Failure to Comply” on their record and so far we cannot find a cheaper rate.  This is ridiculous.  Of all the stupid things I hear about kids doing and getting in trouble for, this seems awfully tame.  I realize I am not exactly objective but the punishment hardly fits the crime.  So for the next year and a half we will be stuck paying ridiculous auto premiums…all because my daughter and her friend wanted chocolate ice cream one night.