Beat The Ticket The Electronic Way
Driver registers online at stop
Published in the Home News Tribune 12/05/03
By KEN SERRANO
STAFF WRITER
NORTH BRUNSWICK: When a township patrol officer pulled over Sean Leach yesterday on Route 130, the Jersey City man had a problem: His registration was overdue.
But he also had a cell phone and a friend with a computer he was able to reach.
Using the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission's online registration, Leach, 36, got his car renewed while patrolman Jason Zier was writing him up.
The upshot: Leach got the ticket for having an unregistered vehicle, but he beat the towing bill.
Zier pulled over Leach's 1992 Mazda 626 in the southbound lanes of Route 130 near Georges Road at 4:10 p.m. after noticing the sticker on his license plate expired at the end of October. Leach told the officer he just didn't get around to renewing his registration, and Zier said that he had no excuse, especially since a motorist can register online, which Zier explained, said Capt. Donald Conry, North Brunswick Police Department spokesman.
Leach grabbed the renewal form from his visor that the commission sent him. On it was the access code needed for renewal. While Zier was issuing the summons and ordering a wrecker, Leach called a friend who took his credit card and other information and then renewed the registration for him, Conry said.
When Zier returned with the ticket, Leach told him the car was now registered. Zier's onboard computer confirmed that.
"It's immediate," Conry said.
Zier canceled the wrecker. It was no longer needed since it was coming to tow an unregistered vehicle off the road, Conry said.
Leach could not be reached last night.
Derrick Stokes, spokesman for the Motor Vehicle Commission, said the online-registration service was started three years ago. The commission also allows a motorist to check his or her driving record, pay a parking or traffic ticket, list an address change, and perform other tasks at www.accessdmv.com.