Quote:
Originally Posted by Vrae
I too was about your age when I got my permanent plates. Honestly I cried as I looked at them because I felt like, yep.. it’s official, I am disabled and I’m not even 40 yet (at that time). However, It was the best decision, and I am grateful for it. You can also keep a plaque as well so if you’re in someone else’s car, you can retain the access. There should not be an increase in cost to register your vehicle at your normal renewal time, just a new plate.
On a humorous note, my husband says he married me for my parking.  |
Not sure that permanent plates are such a good idea, in fact, a doctor of mine counsels strongly against it based on up-close-and-personal experience of one of his patients: a 72 year-old white haired lady.
Essentially, she was stopped for some sort of a moving violation and the officer spotted just her permanent plaque sitting on the seat next to her - not even a permanent license plate - and immediately began interrogating her as to all meds she was on. Turns out she was on a small dose of a benzodiazepine, which medical studies show can cause impairment, but unlike the case of alcohol neither public nor private money has apparently been made available to establish a safe level in terms of blood concentrations, whether (unlike alcohol) it's deleterious effects can be safely off-set through the use of "wakefulness drug," etc., and as a result a policeman is allowed to presume that a driver who commits a moving offense while using a benzodiazepine is DWI.
And in the case of this grandmother, because of quotas, a DWI looks good on the arresting officer's stats - whether or not it results in a conviction -
the lady was handcuffed and jailed overnight until a judge threw out the charge at her arrangement the next morning!!! (And this in Deep-Blue Los Angeles County.)
So here's the practice point:
IF YOU ARE TAKING ANY MEDICATION LABEL TO WARN USE OF ITS POSSIBLE EFFECT WHILE DRIVING OR "USING HEAVY EQUIPMENT, ALWAYS PUT YOUR PLACARD IN AN ENCLOSED COMPARTMENT - NOT THE DOOR WELL - WHICH YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO OPEN IF CALLED UPON TO PRODUCE YOUR LICENSE, REGISTRATION, PROOF OF INSURANCE, ETC.
At least that was the advice I got from my psycho-pharmacologist, and when I took it to my pain doc, he said that while he hadn't considered the issue but it appeared to be sound advice.
For what it's worth . . .
Mike