Q: Hello, Honk. I don’t know where else I might get an answer, so I hope you can help. I traded in a 2012 Hyundai to a dealership in February. I’m now receiving toll violations every week from the 91 Express Lanes that runs in Orange and Riverside counties for the Hyundai; the new owner did put different license plates on it. The Express Lanes employees say they simply receive information from the Department of Motor Vehicles, and the DMV still shows the vehicle belonging to me. Is there a way to clear this up, or am I stuck calling the Express Lanes every week for the rest of time?
– Barbara Hainey, Torrance
A: Honk, years ago, got a call from a cop about the new owner of his old car getting in some trouble — Honk explained he had sold his aging ride, and the officer moved on.
So Honk gets it.
It sounds like the new owner of the Hyundai hasn’t registered it with the toll roads, and the tollway is asking the DMV who owns the ride so toll violations can be meted out, and state records show that you do.
Even though you don’t.
Maybe the buyer has lagged on its responsibility.
“The vehicle record is not permanently transferred out of the seller’s name until the DMV receives a completed application for transfer of ownership and payment of appropriate fees from the new owner,” Ronald Ongtoaboc, a DMV spokesperson, said in an email.
But the seller can take two steps to ensure all is swell.
First, the seller is supposed to submit within five days of the sale a Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability; it is online at the DMV’s website.
“(That) lets the DMV know that (the seller is) no longer responsible for parking/traffic violations or civil or criminal actions associated with the vehicle after the date of sale,” Ongtoaboc said. “To ensure that a transfer went through, the seller may call DMV’s customer service line at 1-800-777-0133 and provide the vehicle’s information.”
Because you allowed Honk to pass along your contact info, Ongtoaboc said the DMV will reach out and try to help you, Barbara.
Q: Hi Honk: I believe you’ve addressed this question in the past, but frequently I see a California Highway Patrol vehicle or a local police department vehicle riding in the HOV lane, no lights or sirens, with only the single driver in the vehicle. The CHP is quick to hand out violations when a common citizen violates the law, what is the recourse when they violate their own rules?
– Rick O’Reilly, Newport Beach
A: Cops, even on duty, are to follow the carpool-lane law like the rest of us — unless there is a work task that gives them leeway.
There are two common exceptions: An officer is trying to quickly get to a call where someone needs help — sometimes this is done without lights and sirens, so the general public doesn’t freak out and get in the way; or they are enforcing the law, such as pursuing a speeder or other traffic violator.
“There has to be a reason,” said Lt. Matt Gutierrez, based in the California Highway Patrol’s headquarters up in the Sacramento area.
“I understand the frustration, but there are two sides — and I just don’t know the other side (in these cases),” he said.
If you saw a CHP officer you suspect of just not wanting to sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic, just because it, well, stinks, Gutierrez said the public can call the local CHP office, on a non-emergency line, and someone there might be able to figure out if the officer was wrong.
An officer couldn’t get cited after the fact, but the boss might get rather upset.
HONKIN’ FACT: A rock formation in New Hampshire, discovered in the early 1800s according to the New England Historical Society, looked like what it came to be known as: “The Old Man of the Mountain.”
But on May 3, 2003, nature got the best of him, and he tumbled to the ground.
Why, you ask, is this mentioned in a transportation column?
Well, his silhouette lives on — on roadway signs telling drivers what state route they are on.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk