Diversion? Intervention? Huh?

Soon after I moved here, I was the lucky recipient of three speeding tickets, driving with a suspended license, and having out of state plates. Two of the tickets were from a camera (!!!), taken when I was driving back and forth to Oro Valley. I was trying to get a job at a Wal-Mart there, of all places. Two interviews and I didn't get the job. But that's another story. I got a speeding ticket back in Michigan, right before we left for Arizona (detailed here), and we didn't have the money to pay it. Even though my mail was forwarded to Arizona, I was not informed that my license was suspended due to non-payment. So I was pulled over for speeding (43 in a 30). The speed limit had changed from 40 to 30, and I hadn't noticed the change. But yes, I do have a bit of a lead foot. The policeman saw my license was suspended, and that we still had Michigan plates. I got a ticket, and the car was impounded. Yes, they took it away right then and there. We were about ten miles from home with three kids, in the blazing Arizona sun. The officer was nice enough to pay for a cab for us, since we didn't have money for the fare.

We registered the car, and I got my Arizona license (I wrote about that here). We were then able to get it out of the impound. I never blogged about the car being impounded. I was just too upset to even mention it. It was bad enough for us having to deal with that, but writing it down would've been even worse. I was feeling a lot of guilt at the time, and I still do feel quite a bit. I caused so much trouble for us, and it's not even over yet. We have to pay $50 a month for the next year in order to pay off the two camera tickets. As for the suspended license charge, well... that is the subject of this post.

I had to take a class at Southwestern Intervention Services. For more information on diversion/intervention, click here. I went down a week ago, but I was about 10 minutes late. There was a "closed" sign on the door, and the door seemed to be locked. I called their number, but there was no answer. I then thought that they class was being held somewhere else. I called back on Monday, and their phone was disconnected. Huh? They have our $200 payment! I went down there, and they were indeed there, and their phones had been out. They did have the class there two days before. They always keep the closed sign up on the weekends, and sometimes the door sticks. Agggghhhh! I drove 10 miles there for nothing. Well, I got it right last Saturday.

I figured the class would be boring as hell, and they would be telling me things I already know. (I was mostly right.) I brought a notebook to write about my experience in this class. Here's what I wrote:

I'm sitting here in this intervention class. In court, they called it diversion. You could plead guilty, not guilty, or diversion. I had no idea about such a thing when I went in there, but the officer explained it to us, and I claimed diversion. With diversion, you don't have to pay the fines and/or do jail time, and the charge is taken off your record. To do this, you need to take a class, which costs $200. I traded a $700 - $800 fine and a misdemeanor on my record, for a $200 charge and a few hours of my time.

The class has yet to begin. It runs from 1 PM to 5 PM. I arrived at about 12:45. The lady I spoke to last time told me to come early to get a good seat. Well... they wouldn't let us in until 1 PM. Oh well. I still got a good seat. At 1 PM, they let us in, we signed in a clipboard at the desk, and they made photocopies of our IDs. There are only four desks here, and the rest are chairs. I was fortunate to get a desk so that I could write all this.

So here I am. On the overhead projection screen is written, "Southwestern Intervention Services," and in much bigger letters, "Driving On a Suspended License." It appears we're all here for the same violation. Interesting. There are 27 people here so far (including me). Only 7 of those people are women (ditto). I also find that interesting. Either women don't drive on a suspended license nearly as much as men, or they do and just don't get caught. You know, if Michigan had sent something in the mail, informing me that my license had been suspended, all this would've never happened.

Now we're going around the room and introducing ourselves, and how we got caught with this violation. People were pulled over for speeding, having their headlights off at night, parking in a handicapped spot, having a cracked windshield, license plate wasn't reflecting right (?), window tinted too dark, running a red light, and having a tail light out. The officer ran their records and found that their license was suspended. This one man said he was riding a motorized bicycle, and if the motor is above a certain size (50 cc's, he claimed), you need a license and registration for it. He was going 35 in a 20. You can ride faster than 20 with a regular bike and not get a ticket. Ridiculous!

Interstate compacts. If your license is suspended in another state, they will contact your home state, and your license will be suspended there. No kidding. The kicker is, the instructor showed us a chart of 46 states that take part in the compact. Michigan wasn't on there. He said that the slide was made up a year ago, and now all states are onboard with this.

We took a 15 minute break, and I went to the liquor store to get a snack. I splurged and bought a bag of Salsa Verde Doritos (I haven't been able to find the Habanero flavor for months! Waaaah!), and a tall can of Arizona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail. $1.98. Big spender here!

Now we're watching this depressing video. People speeding or driving recklessly, and then getting killed, or killing bystanders. Real heavy on kids and young lovers. They're playing My Immortal by Evanescence. This reminds me of that dream I blogged about a few months ago. So sad. There are a bunch of guys laughing and saying things like, "Oh, man!" Nice. I can never relate to people like that.

Before and after the video, we were viewing some slides while the instructor read them aloud. He does add a bit of his own anecdotes, and he has a personality, at least.

Now we're watching some video about street racing. Yeah, I do this all the time. It's actually just images of totaled cars. I don't know the song, but it sounds like nu-metal. The singer keeps saying, "I don't want to face."

And now we're watching a video about road rage. He handed us a test of some kind. I filled it out before the video started. "Road rage is something learned in adulthood. True/False." I answered "true," since one must be at least near adulthood in order to drive. I got that one wrong. The video stated that road rage is due to bad habits formed during childhood. I can buy that. I answered all the other questions correctly. This was the longest video yet. No music, but rather narration, and some interviews with victims of road rage.

It's 3:30 PM now, and we're in the middle of another 15 minute break. We're going into "DUI and Accidents" next.

Class is back in session. Another little video. This one is like a news report. I learned that in 19 states (including Arizona), you'll have an ignition interlock for one year if convicted of a DUI offense. A breathalyzer would be hooked in to the ignition of your car. It won't start unless you're under the specified alcohol level. You would also have to periodically breathe into the device while driving. This is one interesting thing that I learned today. I had no idea there were such devices.

He's showing us the last video now. He said it's about 15 minutes long, and that if you're squeamish, you can step out into the hall. Wow. After this, I can get my certificate for the class and head on home. Yay! Anyway, this one is called "Red Asphalt V." (Here's a preview of Red Asphalt V, and here's a YouTube video of Red Asphalt III.) This guy spouting out drunk driving statistics looks like the actor from Dexter, only younger. "This is how it went down," he says. There's a bunch of interviews with survivors of car accidents, and their families. They're showing a lot of dead bodies and bloodied people. Some of these clips were filmed during the day, and some bodies were illuminated by flashlight. So far, nobody in the class is laughing. They're showing quite a few tombstones also. Someone's arm was torn off and lying in the road. Yeah, they showed that.

Red Asphalt is also a PlayStation video game. One guess as to where Interplay got their inspiration from...

I stopped writing here. After that cheery video, they gave us our certificates. You've seen me holding it, but here it is up close:

I just bring this to court next month and then I'm done. I'm glad that it's over, sheesh!