Last Friday afternoon just after midday, I was stuck in traffic heading east towards the Garfield Sobers Roundabout in the Fordes Road area. A police vehicle, heading in the opposite direction, entered the street I was on, and as the Vitara was passing, my eyes and the officer’s met.
Immediately a thought came to me: “I have a feeling that policeman is going to turn around and pull me over.” Guess what? He did just that. You may wonder why I had this thought, but on two other occasions once my eyes and the eyes of a police officer driving a vehicle met, I was pulled over. By the time I got to the roundabout, the police officer pulled up next to me and told me to pull over.
The officer got out of his jeep, stood at the back of my car and told me he wanted to have a word with me. Below is part of that conversation.
Policeman: “Where you get these licence plates from?”
Me: “A company that makes licence plates.”
Policeman: “You have illegal licence plates.”
Me: “Illegal plates? I had these plates for about two years.”
Policeman: “Yes, here is what to do. Go to the company you bought the plates from and tell them to reimburse you your money and give you a new set of plates.”
Me: “Officer, you serious? You can’t expect me to walk into a business and tell them a policeman told me to tell them give me back my money and give me a set of new plates. I don’t understand why I am being penalized for something I have no control over. I went to a company that sells licence plates and they gave me just that. Give me your number and I can call you and tell you the name of the company, so you can contact them. I will go there afterwards.”
Officer: “I can report you right now, so either do what I tell you or let me report you. Ignorance of the law is no excuse and it is similar to buying stolen property.” (What made the plates illegal was the style of the font.)
Me: “Okay. Let me get some information as to which constable pulled me over.”
Officer: “Constable? I will tell you who I am. My name is Sergeant Seibert Johnson, Operations Support Division, Traffic, District ‘A’ Police Station. Tell the person at the company to call me.”
Me: “It is good to finally put a face to the voice on the radio.”
I left there and went to the place where I had bought the plates. I explained the situation to them and bought new plates. The good thing is that they gave me a discount.
From hearing him on the radio, I know that Sergeant Johnson is a man who has a keen interest in keeping our roads safe and making sure the road traffic laws are upheld.
I wasn’t upset that he pulled me over. I was upset that he was more interested in my using illegal plates than in making any contact with the company that sold them to me, which in my opinion was of greater importance, since they could be selling more.
I paid for the plates on Friday but was only able to collect them on Monday. The lady at the company was very understanding, but what had me upset was that I believe the company should have given me a free set of plates since they had previously sold me illegal plates.
On Monday afternoon, I took a drive to the Government Printing Department and purchased a copy of a few acts, one of which was the Road Traffic Act.
Sergeant Johnson was indeed correct that I had illegal plates on my vehicle. Listed below are the two areas in the act that were violated.
Page 90 of the act – Second Schedule: Registration Number Plates – states:
1. Each number shall be rectangular and . . .
2. (d) every part of every letter and figure must be at least 14 millimetres in breadth.
Since ignorance to the law is no excuse, I want to recommend that once an individual receives a permit to learn to drive they must also purchase a copy of the Road Traffic Act.
Moral of the story: don’t look police officers driving vehicles in their eyes.
• Corey Worrell is a former Commonwealth youth ambassador.
